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Altera_Forum's avatar
Altera_Forum
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15 years ago

QuartusII licensing

Could somebody comment on licensing of QuartusII 10 SP1? It seems that my installation of software cannot output production-ready code, although it shows all IP components involved in the design as licensed.

I previously used free web edition of Quartus, then un-installed it and obtained subscription version. Now the same project still does not compile right. Is there anything that I might have overlooked in order to get non-time limited *.sof output?

Thanks for your comments in advance.

8 Replies

  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    15 years ago

    You could still have one of the IPs that don't have a license. Check the warnings when you compile your design. Two other possibilities come to mind:

    • If you have a floating license on a network and if someone else is using the license at the same time than you, in some cases the compilation will fail and in some other cases it will continue but generate a time limited .sof. Again it will show as a warning. You can preventthis behaviour by checking the 'wait for license' box in the license setup window.

    • If you have an SOPC system in your project, don't forget to regenerate it once you have the licenses. If you don't the final .sof file will still be time limited.

  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    15 years ago

    Thanks for your reply. I have local nodelocked license using NIC as host ID. The IP in question is NIOS2 processor, but it is shown as licensed. What compilation setting do I need to check to ensure the output code is production ready?

  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    15 years ago

    If it is a local license you don't have anything to do.

    Regenerate your system in SOPC builder. You should see messages saying that it is generating encrypted HDL, if you have all the correct licenses.

    Then when compiling the design in Quartus, look for any message about Opencore evaluation. Hopefully it should point you to the IP that is generating the problem.
  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    15 years ago

    It is correct, I get message like this # 2010.12.07 17:26:53 (*) Generating HDL from CPU objects# 2010.12.07 17:27:03 (*) Creating encrypted HDL# 2010.12.07 17:27:07 (*) Done Nios II generation

    This is the only part where it generates encrypted HDL in my project.

    On the other note, when I check licensing info, I observe the following:

    Altera (6AF7) Nios II Embedded Processor Encrypted output (00A2)

    Altera (6AF7) Nios II Embedded Processor Clear Text output (00A5)

    Both show as licensed.

    Can I possibly switch to un-encrypted, and if YES, then how?

    The only processor choice I have within project is (00A2) one. Does it make any sense?

    Thanks again.
  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    15 years ago

    I don't have the clear text output license, just the encrypted one (00A2). And it works fine like that on my setup. It also says "creating encrypted HDL", but a few lines before, it also says that the design won't be time limited. Here is what I get with Quartus 10.0: 

    # 2010.12.06 13:14:06 (*) Running Generator Program for cpu
#  2010.12.06 13:14:09 (*) Starting Nios II generation
#  2010.12.06 13:14:10 (*)   Checking for plaintext license.
#  2010.12.06 13:14:10 (*)   Plaintext license not found.
#  2010.12.06 13:14:10 (*)   Checking for encrypted license (non-evaluation).
#  2010.12.06 13:14:11 (*)   Encrypted license found.  SOF will not be time-limited.
#  2010.12.06 13:14:11 (*)   Getting CPU configuration settings
#  2010.12.06 13:14:11 (*)   Elaborating CPU configuration settings
#  2010.12.06 13:14:11 (*)   Creating all objects for CPU
#  2010.12.06 13:14:11 (*)     Testbench
#  2010.12.06 13:14:11 (*)     Instruction decoding
#  2010.12.06 13:14:11 (*)       Instruction fields
#  2010.12.06 13:14:11 (*)       Instruction decodes
#  2010.12.06 13:14:12 (*)       Signals for RTL simulation waveforms
#  2010.12.06 13:14:13 (*)       Instruction controls
#  2010.12.06 13:14:13 (*)     Pipeline frontend
#  2010.12.06 13:14:13 (*)     Pipeline backend
#  2010.12.06 13:14:18 (*)   Generating HDL from CPU objects
#  2010.12.06 13:14:28 (*)   Creating encrypted HDL
#  2010.12.06 13:14:33 (*) Done Nios II generation

    Do you have something similar?

    If you do the next step is to look through all the warnings in Quartus when you compile the design. You may find an explanation there.
  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    15 years ago

    Again, thanks for your insightful comments. I think there's a problem with SOPC builder part, when I hit generate and observe messages, it shows that license not found, whereas I see license shown up in Quartus. I am not sure what else to check and/or fix to make it work right.

    I also obtained Web edition Quartus license from Altera and might be forced to just delete my whole installation and re-install using this license. I believe something is messed up in my system... Tired already.

    Later.
  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    15 years ago

    Yes it could be an installation mix up... Did you check that you have the same versions of Quartus and Nios installed? Do you use the LM_LICENSE environment variable to declare the path to the license file?

  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    15 years ago

    Hello there again,

    Yes, I did check versions of both - 10.0 SP1 installed. I specified a license file first, then tried LM_LICENSE environment variable. In both cases I did not observe a difference. I am going to get a hack at it. Thanks for all your support.