New on all this! and with and with a Sockit board as heritage!

[Altera_Forum]

Hello! 

 I must start by saying that I'm an absolute beginner in all this. Nevertheless, I inherited a Sockit board from an abandoned project that I intend to use to process data from a continuous process.  I tried to start by running some tests to see if the board works. I went over the Getting Started guide but to be honest I'm utterly confused with all the software packages Quartus, Nios II and I find that the examples are not very helpful, for example the 5.4 Running Linux on SoCKit board, seems incomplete, once I access to Linux what answer should I expect from the system?  Could anybody please help me understand what tests can I run to see if the board works?  I really appreciate your help. Regards!  Prietoy

[Altera_Forum]

Can you identify the kit you have? There are lots and lots of SoC development boards. What device is it based on? 

 Find it on Altera's "all development kits (https://www.altera.com/products/boards_and_kits/all-development-kits.html)" page.  Cheers, Alex

[Altera_Forum]

Dear Alex, thank you for your reply, 

 The kit that I have is one from the Cyclone Series, the details are in the one in the following link: https://www.altera.com/solutions/partners/partner-profile/terasic-inc-/board/sockit.html  Any help is very much appreciated.  Regards!:)

[Altera_Forum]

That kit's developed by Terasic for Altera. Goto the board's home page on Terasic's site: "sockit - the development kit for new soc device (http://www.terasic.com.tw/cgi-bin/page/archive.pl?language=english&categoryno=167&no=816&partno=1)". 

 Click on the 'Resources' tab towards the top of the page and download the CD-ROM - you'll have to create an account to download it. Chose the version to match the revision of board you have.  On the CD will be a number of demonstration projects that you can load onto the FPGA. You'll need to install quartus (http://dl.altera.com/?edition=lite) to open the projects or, at the very least, the stand alone quartus programmer (https://www.altera.com/downloads/software/prog-software/121sp1.html) to load images into the FPGA. Go through a few - start simple - and see what happens.  Cheers, Alex

[Altera_Forum]

Dear Alex, thanks for your suggestions, that is what I did but the examples they provide are not very helpful, even the Getting started guide seems incomplete. 

 I guess I will try to contact people from Terasic directly.  Thaks a lot for your advice.  Cheers!