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QuartusII APEX20k license

Altera_Forum
Honored Contributor II
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I want to use APEX20K family.  

Quartus v10.0 and 9 are not supporting this device family anymore. 

only older versions like v3.0, v4.1.  

but these older versions needs a purchased license for this family. 

how can i program APEX20K family if i can't a valid license for old versions anymore (i cant even purchase a valid license). 

 

Can anyone help???? 

 

thanx
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Altera_Forum
Honored Contributor II
660 Views

 

--- Quote Start ---  

I want to use APEX20K family.  

Quartus v10.0 and 9 are not supporting this device family anymore. 

only older versions like v3.0, v4.1.  

but these older versions needs a purchased license for this family. 

how can i program APEX20K family if i can't a valid license for old versions anymore (i cant even purchase a valid license). 

 

Can anyone help???? 

 

thanx 

--- Quote End ---  

 

 

Hi, 

 

as far as I know APEX20KC and APEX20KE are supported upto version 9.0 sp2 . 

 

Kind regards 

 

GPK
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Altera_Forum
Honored Contributor II
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Hi GPK, 

 

i want to use APEX20K and not APEX20KC or APEX20KE... 

 

can you or others help me????
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Altera_Forum
Honored Contributor II
660 Views

Hello BELLAPO, 

 

APEX20K / E / C are very old devices and are really discouraged for new designs. Unless you _have_ to use this part for some reason, I would highly recommend picking something newer. CycloneIII / IV (considered a low-end device) probably has higher performance than this old 'high-performance' device. 

 

I'm not sure Altera ever offered free software to cover the APEX family - if they did it was a long time ago and would be very out of date. 

 

 

Stephen
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Altera_Forum
Honored Contributor II
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Bellapo,  

 

try Quartus version 8.1 web edition.
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Altera_Forum
Honored Contributor II
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I think that 8.1 supports back as far as APEX II. However, V7.1 does support some of the 20KE devices. 

 

Either way, starting a design with software that is three years old and a device which is ~10 years old is not a good idea. APEX devices are on the tail end of their life cycle and are expensive. Look at using a newer family instead - Cyclone III should be a good performance match and far more cost effective. 

 

 

Stephen
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Altera_Forum
Honored Contributor II
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Oh crap, in my suggestion of Quartus 8.1, I was mixing up APEX and ACEX.  

 

Anway. I kinda of assumed he's dealing with existing hardware. 

If that's not the case, take Stephen's advice: avoid such old devices, use current ones.
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Altera_Forum
Honored Contributor II
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I happen to have the same issue: giving support on an 10-year old design. We used the Apex20K100 (non-E!) version and I have been searching in the latest Quartus versions without relief ... they do support the 20K100E but I don't seem to find the non-E device. 

Can anyone tell me which was the last version to fully support these? So I can end this trial and error approach of downloading versions and finding they don't support the device I need.
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Altera_Forum
Honored Contributor II
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josyb, 

 

As best as I can tell, the non-E version of APEX was never supported by a Web (or free) version of Quartus. 

 

Unfortunately, I think this means you will have to use a purchased version of the tool. I would talk to your local Altera sales representitive and see what they can do for you. Plead your case and see if they can "work something out". You will have to use one of the older versions - probably 6.x or 7.x for the non-E devices. 

 

 

Stephen
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Altera_Forum
Honored Contributor II
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We have always had a subscription, starting off with the original Quartus. I expect that the current license will do for 7.0 which I'm currently downloading.

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Altera_Forum
Honored Contributor II
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Well that helps a lot. If you have a current license, you can use any of the old versions of the tool. There was a change in license format a number of years ago, so for really old versions you may have to get your license regenerated. 

 

I cannot say for certain that 7.0 supports non-E APEX, but this is a good place to start. 

 

Stephen
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Altera_Forum
Honored Contributor II
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I went down until 5.0, but no non-E device support found yet ... 

In the release notes Altera specifically mentions the EP20K100 device, but I don't seem to be able to select it ...
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Altera_Forum
Honored Contributor II
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I finally got it going under 9.0 

The thing was that by trying it under 9.1 it replaced the device with a Cyclone one. The 9.0 has support for the EP20K100 non-E, but just doesn't show it in the assignment selection list. I edited the .qsf file with the correct family and device, and things were back ...
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Altera_Forum
Honored Contributor II
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Well that's annoying. I'm not sure why the device would not have shown up in the family list...very strange. Glad you were able to resolve this.

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