Purchase Intel FPGA Board

[TechDeveloper]

Dear Sir:

      I am new to Intel FPGAs and its IDE and I wanted to purchase a development board to be utilized for RF communication applications.  

      My experience with the Texas Instruments line of microprocessors, was a good experience because non-volatile memory was on chip.      Therefore, my first question is, do any Intel FPGA boards have non-volatile memory on chip.   

       Now, before I hear replies, like you are trying to compare "apples with oranges", FPGAs and microprocessors are 2 two different items....

       I own and program Xilinx development boards and an embedded processor is on chip within the development board.    I am assuming the Intel FPGA development boards are competitive with the Xilinx boards and they have the processor on chip.   

       Since the assumption is made that Intel development boards have a processor and FPGA fabric on chip, my next question is directed towards non-volatile memory, can anyone tell me whether any Intel development boards have on chip non-volatile memory (along with the "assumed" FPGA fabric and embedded processor)? 

[JohnT_Intel]

Hi,

All FPGA board will have on-board non-volatile memory which is used to store FPGA bitstreams. For FPGA with Processor then I would recommend you to use SOC device.

Below is the few option of the board that you may used.

• https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/programmable/products/boards_and_kits/dev-kits/altera/kit-cyclone-v-soc.html
• https://www.terasic.com.tw/cgi-bin/page/archive.pl?Language=English&CategoryNo=204

[TechDeveloper]

Dear JohnT;

       Thank you for your reply.  

       I was overlooking the kit that you had pointed me to.    I have a few questions about the kit that I think only you can answer.    

       Years ago, I bought a Brevia FPGA development board, (Lattice Semiconductor), and it was advertised to have free software.    One year later, the license expired and I discovered that my license was not free.   To continue developing on my kit, I had to purchase their software at an unbelievable price.      That experience was a very rude surprise.     

        Learning from that experience, I have to pose these questions because the link(s) that you pointed me to do not elaborate upon costs and if I click on link to get more information, I get a "server error" see attachments.       My questions are in two parts, one part concerns the development tools and the other question concerns the "free" Quartus download.  

First question:     How do the "development tools" augment the "free" Quartus download and how does it differ (do I require these tools to develop on the "cyclone" board that you had pointed me to)?   Are the software "development tools" free?

2nd question:   Is the free Quartus download license free and does it ever expire?

[JohnT_Intel]

Hi,

Quartus Lite Edition will be free for life on the board that I suggested. The only limitation is that certain CORE IP (such as Nios II core IP) will not be available to be used. No expiry date on the license.

[TechDeveloper]

Hi, John;

      Thank you for your reply.   

       When the Intel "server" begins to operate correctly.    Can you get back to me with regard to this question:

How do the "development tools" augment the "free" Quartus download and how does it differ (do I require these tools to develop on the "cyclone" board that you had pointed me to)?   Are the software "development tools" free?

       Thank you for your replies, they are appreciated.

[JohnT_Intel]

Hi,

You can check the different of Quartus tools from https://www.intel.com/content/dam/www/programmable/us/en/pdfs/literature/po/ss-quartus-comparison.pdf. The Quartus Lite version is a free version of tools that support the tools that you are using.

You can download the tools from https://fpgasoftware.intel.com/?edition=lite.