NIOS II free?

[Altera_Forum]

Is there a lite version of the NIOS II available for Quartus web edition? Or does this embedded processor cost money?

[Altera_Forum]

The economy version is free (Nios II /e).

[Altera_Forum]

Ok thanks, and if I want to use Qsys. Is this free?  

 Does certain IP have a fee?

[Altera_Forum]

Qsys itself is free. 

also, Qsys does have NiosII/e as well.  in case of other IPs , some of them are charged(e.g. External DDR3-IP) , some are not. but even so, most of case,you can use IPs with time limited version as long as you just test them.

[Altera_Forum]

Thanks for this explanation! 

 So If I were to start a new design and it needs a UART. How can I tell when I am adding it if it is free? If its not free, how do I know how I will be charged for it? It may go into say 100-200 products over the course of 5 years.

[Altera_Forum]

When you have an unlicensed core you can still use in open core plus mode (evaluation mode). If your output programming file has "timelimited" in the name then you can still use it but you need to keep JTAG connected and the nag message on the screen. 

 Nios II e and all of the embedded peripherals are free. There is still a license agreement if I'm not mistaken with the Nios II 'e' core, you just don't need a license to develop with it.

[Altera_Forum]

Will I be able to fit a Ethernet Serial Communications peripheral with about 100 lines of C code on the Economy NIOS?

[Altera_Forum]

Yes, program size is not limited by the CPU, only by the ammount of memory. 

 /e limitations are mostly performance related and lack of MMU.

[Altera_Forum]

Ok great! 

 So setting up my first Qsys / NIOS II for an application like this isn't so bad? 1 engineer can do it in less than month?   I watched the Altera training courses. Any other documents you recommend?