Design Your Own IC: Prototyping with CPLDs （part 3）

Published:2011/7/22 3:15:00 Author:Amy From:SeekIC

by Paul Goossens

Software

PC software that can generate the nec­essary programming files and program them into the IC is required for pro-grarriming the CPLD. Fortunately, the manufacturer of the CPLD has a nice (and free) software package for this purpose (see Figure 6). This software is called Quartus, and it can be down­loaded from the manufacturer’s web­site (http://www.altera.com/). On the home page of this site, select Design Software under the Produces heading. This will cause a new win­dow to appear, where you should select Quartus II Web Edition. After this, follow the instructions displayed on the screen. However, you shouldn’t overlook the size of the download. The file is a hefty 144.9 MB, so if you have a dial-up link, it might be more convenient to have someone else with a faster Internet connection download this file! After installing the software, you must request a free license. Exactly, how to do this is clearly explained on the Altera website.




Next month

Next month we will use several exam­ples to explain how you can design a circuit using Quartus, and of course we will describe how to try out these examples using the experimenter’s board. For programming the CPLD, you will need a JTAG interface in addition to the experimenter’s board. The previously mentioned Parallel JTAG Interface from the Septem­ber 2002 issue of Elektor Electronics is suitable for this purpose.

While you’re waiting for the next issue of Elektor Electronics, we recommend that you read the Quartus tutorial. It can be found under the Help menu. Using this tutorial, you can already familiarize yourself with the organization of the software and examine the features of the software.

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