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13-July-04 |
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My programmer; and connected to a target board. I've put this here because as an infrequent visitor the Altera web site is not very friendly, I could not readily send an email to customer support and I got fed up filling in the little feedback form. Altera; some great components. I really like the small CPLDs and I'll have to find an application for the new Cyclone device.
The StoryI have a couple of circuit board designs that include the Altera EPM3032ATC44 programmable logic device or CPLD; which work well. Back when I was running Win-98 I used the Maxplus software to make the devices operational. I entered a schematic from which it did some magic and poof, it worked (well there was some stuffing around but eventually I got there). I built a ByteBlaster programmer to program the devices on-board. It all worked quite well. Now I want to program some more of the same devices on the same boards. Problem is, I've since switched the main PC from Win-98 to Win-XP-Pro. Looking at the Altera site I see that Max is now not recommended so I downloaded the web edition of Quartus II; all 170 Mbytes of it. The plan was to install it, load the original files and program the devices. NO SUCH LUCK. Quartus II failed to install. I thought it might be the firewall so I shut that down and tried again. 4 or 5 attempts later, still nothing. Having wasted enough time I decided to switch back to Max. After all it worked before. A download about 30 Mbytes and went through the registration process again. Max installed OK first time and I setup the license file that had arrived by email. It runs; BUT; the programmer doesn't work. It refuses to recognise the byteblaster programmer. Back to Win-98 Luckily I've still got the old Win-98 hard-drive in a plug-in module so it's not too difficult to switch back. Under 98 Max recognises the programmer and I've been able to program a couple of boards. Quartus III haven't seen it running yet so I can't comment. If it's anything like Max it should be good. This is the error message the Quartus II installation threw up:
Error Code:	-5009 : 0x2 What's the AnswerAltera? email please Updates - SolutionsI haven't heard from Altera but I did receive the following helpful information from Wade Hassler: To fix the Windows XP problem of allowing access to the parallel port with Quartus' byteblaster, go through the following steps:
Thanks for the help Wade. Changes please Altera
Simply put: I think MS Windows sucks. No matter what you try to do with it something always goes wrong and you spend hours of wasted time going round in circles. Linux is still too complicated but at least it's open and honest. You're not forced to install upgrades every year or two because they've change some format and stuffed up half your system. I'm still regretting the change from 98 to XP, but it's a loose-loose situation. Forced upgrade through planned deliberate incompatibility. I'm slowly changing things over to Linux but I don't have time to do it as fast as I would like.
Is Altera in the business of selling hardware or software? Why the restrictive licensing? I guess Altera sells hardware. Maybe the restrictive licensing is to keep track of the opposition; to have some idea when the competition is evaluating the product. Considering the limited operational period and complex licensing of the Altera software, you have to wonder wether it's safe to use. It's probably worse than MS windows in that it's more restrictive and may be a greater risk long term support risk. How many products are going to be junked in the future because of this activation and licensing. It's not an issue with throw-away products but it is with industrial and embedded products. I've been planning some new home automation hardware and have already designed in a Cyclone device. As home automation hardware has a long life expectancy and will likely be software updated a number of times during it's life, this may not be a wise choice. "sorry lady; we can't update your home because we can't run the programming software anymore". I have noticed that when the license expires, the programmer function in Max still works. But from what I've seen you can't change the program. I don't see anything wrong with the Altera components and would recommend them. They do seem to be expensive, but all programmable logic seems expensive for now.
Plenty of glossy advertising but I spent ages hunting around looking for information. It's difficult to follow. When I had problems I went looking for a FAQ or help page. No luck; only a few bits about what if the licensing doesn't work. Well; what if you don't even get that far? I did find a feedback form which I started to fill in. Before long, I decided that if I was going to write it all out I might as well put it on a web page with a few other general comments. I did eventually go through the registration process. It took a while so by the time I'd completed it I'd lost interest and went on to do something entirely different. I do understand that it's difficult to present a lot of complex information simply. Once you become familiar with a web site it's usually pretty obvious where to look. The problem I find with many sites is that as an infrequent visitor looking for specific information it's difficult and always takes much longer than I feel it should. I guess that's life; everything is just more complicated than it should be. |
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last updated: 15 October 2004 |
