SP1 available also for Quartus-7.1 Web Edition?

Hi,

Yes, you're right. ALTERA only support the whole installation for 7.1sp1, a 600M+ huge file, which is quite inconvenient for us.

For the new features, it is said in the following link:

http://www.altera.com/support/software/quartus2/design_flow/des-qms-q21.html

Quartus 7.1sp1:

Adds pin-out support for all Stratix® III devices

Adds pin-out support for all ArriaTM GX devices

Adds POF support for the following Arria GX devices: EP1AGX20, EP1AGX35, EP1AGX50, EP1AGX60, EP1AGX90

Adds POF support for the Cyclone® III EP3C120 device

Adds new ball-grid array (BGA) package support for Cyclone III devices

256-pin, 0.8-mm Ultra FineLine BGA (U256)

484-pin, 0.8-mm Ultra FineLine BGA (U484)

Quartus II Web Edition software adds support for the Cyclone III EP3C5 device

As we can see, it contains mainly about the support for new devices. If you do not care much about those, hold version 7.1 as you wish.

enjoy,

olivercamel

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Does SP1 contain also bugfixes or is it just an enhancement to support new types of Hardware (e.g. the Arria,etc.)

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As we can see, it contains mainly about the support for new devices. If you do not care much about those, hold version 7.1 as you wish.

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The SP1 release notes are available at http://www.altera.com/literature/lit-qts.jsp.

All service packs include bug fixes in addition to the listed feature changes. I normally recommend using the latest available version (7.1 SP1 at the moment) unless you happen to know there is something in the latest version that is bad for your design (a rare situation) or your design is so mature that it really isn't worth the bother to upgrade the software.

When a service pack or new version comes out, I recommend installing it in addition to the previous version rather than uninstalling the previous version. That way you can easily go back to the previous version of Quartus if you run into a problem you suspect is specific to the new version. This is the way I've handled new versions since way back in early MAX+plus II days. (For Nios tools, it's not as easy to go back and forth between versions because the environment variables don't all update automatically for that. For Quartus itself, there's no problem having multiple versions on your computer and going back and forth between them as long as you don't run two versions simultaneously.)

If using the install file that contains just the service pack, I install a second copy of the base version and install the service pack on top of the second copy.

Moin,

Thanks a lot for the information. Currently it looks like i'm "not very happy" with 7.1 anyway - like e.g. i'm not even able to do an ulta-simple-sopc design (pll,nios, onchip-ram, jtag-uart; small-hello-world). It compiles, but is not accessible via jtag:

Pausing target processor: not responding.
Resetting and trying again: FAILED
Leaving target processor paused

If i do the same with the PLL outside of the sopc everything works fine... So for me (and the more i read here, the more i believe, that i'm not alone) QII7.1 is rather "beta" - to stay politically correct :)

Cheers

WK

Moin,

Sorry but as far as i can see it, this kind of release notes is rather unusable because it seems not to be complete! In another thread here http://www.alteraforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=456 there is given advice to get patch 0.20 from Altera to fix a severe bug in Sopc.

Nothing about that in the SP1 release notes; that means either the release notes are not complete or the bug is still in 7.1SP1...

What are the bugs, the patches 0.01 - 0.19 and 0.21 - .... are for?

I'm sorry, i'm rather new to FPGA Design, i've just done one simpler design before (with the chips of Alteras competitor), where i had only the ususal newbie problems. But no hassels like this, with unusable designs,etc.

How do you all manage to work with that SW; how do you know, that a strange behaviour of the SW is not your fault but just a bug in the new Version? It takes me awful lots of time to track down issues like that - my boss wants to see progress in my design; not my efforts in finding strange effects in Quartus.

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When a service pack or new version comes out, I recommend installing it in addition to the previous version rather than uninstalling the previous version. That way you can easily go back to the previous version of Quartus if you run into a problem you suspect is specific to the new version. This is the way I've handled new versions since way back in early MAX+plus II days.

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Whoaa - that's just what i idid. But to me this looks like it was no good idea at all having 2 different Versions of Quartus on the PC. Suddenly in my QII6.1 there are also Librarypaths set to 7.1 stuff - resulting in compile errors of course. I don't know, who set it, but i didn't.

Meanwhile and after i've read about the fun others had with QII7.1 i uninstalled 7.1, removed the 7.1 Librarypaths as good as i could from my 6.1 Project(s). One seems to compile again, on the other i get an error i'd describe here in another thread.

I'm pretty glad, that i'm just in the starting phase of a design and it doesn't hurt too much to do a new design from scratch, but nevertheless it's A.) timeconsuming and B.) i have no good feeling coming into a phase with such tools, where sudden errors would hurt much.

bye,

WK

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But to me this looks like it was no good idea at all having 2 different Versions of Quartus on the PC. Suddenly in my QII6.1 there are also Librarypaths set to 7.1 stuff - resulting in compile errors of course. I don't know, who set it, but i didn't.

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In my previous post, I said, "For Nios tools, it's not as easy to go back and forth between versions because the environment variables don't all update automatically for that. For Quartus itself, there's no problem having multiple versions on your computer and going back and forth between them as long as you don't run two versions simultaneously."

I considered pointing out SOPC Builder in particular before and wish I had now that I know you have an SOPC Builder system in your design. When working with SOPC Builder or Nios tools, you have to be careful with any environment variable with "SOPC" in the name if you are going back and forth between Quartus versions. If I am not directly working with SOPC Builder, the Nios II IDE, etc., I have no problem going between versions (even if an SOPC Builder system or Nios CPU is in the design), and I do it often.

A search for "environment variables" at www.altera.com turns up at least two references for this. There is information about the SOPC environment variables in the Nios II IDE version 7.1 release notes available at http://www.altera.com/support/ip/processors/nios2/rn/ips-niosii-rn.html. Look under "Installation and Licensing Instructions --> Using Previously Installed Versions of the Nios II EDS". Similar information is at http://www.altera.com/support/kdb/rd03082007_165.html.

If you have other Altera IP in your design, you might need an user library setting to tell Quartus which version you want to use. A few versions back all the software was changed so that Quartus, the MegaCore IP library, and Nios tools were by default all installed together so that Quartus could more easily find IP of the same version as Quartus itself when there is no user library setting. But you still have the option of upgrading Quartus for your design without changing the IP version in the design (unless your IP has a special case that must be matched to a particular Quartus version).

I am running into this confusion on the latest Q7.2sp1 web edition. When you install this sp1pack, it doesn't patch \72, instead it creates a new install under \72sp1. The sp1packs for the IP and EDS however, actually patch those installs under \72. This makes me think the two versions of quartus are now interdependant because of the paths required, and you can't really uninstall the 72 now without breaking the 72sp1.

I don't care about old projects. Can I install the 72sp1 on top of the 72? A little clarification in Altera's docs would go a long way.

BTW, has ToolSwitch been brought up to date on these latest versions?