NIOS II license?

[Frank Buss]

I've developed a NIOS project some years ago for a client and with the
free web edition I could create only encrypted VHDL files with the SOPC
and a time limited SOF file with Quartus, which worked as long as JTAG
was connected to a PC (and I think there was one hour time limit) and
later the client used his licence to create the final SOF file.

Yesterday I've downloaded the latest version of Quartus and NIOS II EDS
and now it looks like the SOPC creates normal and unencrpyted VHDL files
for the whole NIOS CPU (the 6000 lines of VHDL code for the CPU looks
like the full instruction decoding logic etc.) and Quartus creates
unlimited SOF files. At least I was able to create a blinking LED
project and after uploading it to my old T-Rex board, it worked for
hours without the USB connection.

So technically there is no reason to buy the IP-NIOS anymore, but of
course, I'm a good boy and I would buy IP-NIOS, if I would need it for
another project, but why did Altera made it so easy compared to the
encrypted and time limited process before to steal the IP?

--
Frank Buss, http://www.frank-buss.de
piano and more: http://www.youtube.com/user/frankbuss

 

[Thomas Entner]

Maybe you are using the "E"-version of Nios? This low performance-
version became "freeware" some time ago.

Regards,

Thomas

 

[Frank Buss]

Thomas Entner wrote:

Maybe you are using the "E"-version of Nios? This low performance-
version became "freeware" some time ago.

Yes, it is the "E" version. Using the "S" or "F" version, it creates
encrypted VHDL. Thanks for the information, I missed it on the web,
because it was not on the NIOS II overview page, only a link to "Buy a
License", but on the detailed page for the Economy CPU it is written:

http://www.altera.com/products/ip/processors/nios2/cores/economy/ni2-economy-core.html

--
Frank Buss, http://www.frank-buss.de
piano and more: http://www.youtube.com/user/frankbuss