Comparison between versions of Quartus II

[Altera_Forum]

Hi, 

  I am new to Altera FPGAs. What is the difference between Pro, Standard and Lite editions of Quartus II? Also What is the Altera equivalent of Xilinx Chipscope?  Thanks, Arvind Gupta.

[Altera_Forum]

Here are the differences: 

 https://www.altera.com/content/dam/altera-www/global/en_us/pdfs/literature/po/ss-quartus-comparison.pdf  The Altera equivalent of Chipscope is SignalTap.

[Altera_Forum]

OK thanks. From the table it shows that Quartus 2 lite does not have a synthesizer. Is that true. If so, how will HDL description get synthesized to hardware. Also, as per the download page, MegaIPCore library is free with lite edition where as per this table it is not. Which one is true. Pls. note I may be missing something here (I am new to this Altera domain). 

 Arvind Gupta.

[Altera_Forum]

It has synthesis. It just does not have Spectra-Q synthesis, which is only available in the Pro version. The standard synthesis engine is fine. Does a great job for 99% of designs. 

 All of the basic IP is free (RAMs/ROMs, FIFOs, PLLs, counters, etc.). Only the more complex IP requires a license (e.g., triple-speed Ethernet). I think Cyclone V has hard memory controllers so no worries there. And the HPS has hard Ethernet controllers I assume. You get a lot for your money with the Cyclone parts. Good luck!

[Altera_Forum]

Lite edition only supports the low end devices. For higher end devices you need standard or pro. 

 The equivolent of chipscope is signal tap

[Altera_Forum]

OK... I download lite edition (ver 16) for windows. I have (32 bit) win xp at my end. After download, during installation it errored out that it is a 64 bit application. At the download page, it is only mentioned windows/ Linux. So how do I know which version is 32/ 64 bit and where o get the latest version of 32 bit. 

 Thanks, Arvind Gupta

[Altera_Forum]

Quartus 13.1 is the last version that will run on Windows XP 32b and Windows 7 32b (and it will run on Windows 7 64b also). 

 Quartus 14.0 and later require Windows 7 64b (not 32b) and later (Windows 8.1).  Quartus 16.0 is the first version that will run on Windows 10 64b (also will run on Windows 7/8.1 64b).   So if you have to run on WinXP 32b you will need to download the 13.1 version of Quartus. Or else upgrade to Windows 7 64b (or 8.1 64b).  Personally I am on Windows 7 64b (and expect to be for a long time) so I can run 13.0sp1 which is the last version to support CycloneII, and also run 16.0 for newer CycloneV series.