Cyclone II FPGA Starter Development Kit

from Altera Corporation

• Ordering Information
• Development Kit Contents
• Available Documentation, Errata, and Training Lab
• Related Links

The low-cost Cyclone^® II FPGA Starter Development Kit is ideal for evaluating Altera's high-performance, low-power, 90-nm technology. By using this RoHS-compliant starter development kit, you will see 60 percent (on average) higher performance and 50 percent (on average) lower power than competing 90-nm, low-cost FPGAs. Several reference designs and demonstrations included in the kit make for a quick, "out-of-the-box" evaluation experience.

The Cyclone II FPGA Starter Development Kit includes the following:

• Altera's easy-to-use Quartus^® II design software (Web Edition)
• Nios^® II Embedded Design Suite (EDS)
• Complete documentation
• Cables and power supply

Cyclone II FPGAs are perfectly suited as an embedded processor or microcontroller when combined with Altera's 32-bit Nios II embedded processor intellectual property (IP) cores. You can add many other functions to the FPGA with additional IP cores available from Altera and Altera's partners.

Additional daughtercards, which plug into the Cyclone IIFPGA Starter Development Kit, are available for purchase.

Ordering information

Table 1. Cyclone II FPGA Starter Development Kit Ordering Code and Pricing Information
Ordering Code	Price	Ordering Information
DK-CYCII-2C20N	$150	Purchase online via Altera's eStore or contact your local Altera® distributor to place your order.
Optional Daughtercards	$170	4.3 inch LCD touch panel upgrade: View Altera partner information or order online.
	$85	5.0 megapixel digital camera upgrade: View Altera partner information or order online.

Development kit contents

The Cyclone II FPGA Starter Development Kit is RoHS compliant and features:

• Cyclone II Starter Development Board
• Cyclone II EP2C20F484C7N device
• Configuration
  • USB-Blaster^TM download cable (embedded)
  • EPCS4 serial configuration device
• Memory
  • 8-Mbyte SDRAM
  • 512-Kbit SRAM
  • 4-Mbyte flash
• Clocking
  • SMA connector (external clock input)
• Audio
  • 24-bit coder/decoder (CODEC)
• Switches and indicators
  • Ten switches and four push buttons
  • Four 7-segment displays
  • Ten red and eight green LEDs
• Connectors
  • VGA, RS-232, and PS/2 ports
  • Two 40-pin expansion ports
  • SD/MMC socket
• Cables/power
  • Power from USB cable or external power supply (recommended when using the kit with accessory daughtercards, U.S.-style adapter provided)
• Cyclone II FPGA Starter Development Kit CD-ROM
  • Reference designs and demonstrations targeted for the Cyclone II FPGA Starter Development Board
  • User manual
  • Reference guide
• Quartus II Web Edition CD-ROM
• Nios II EDS CD-ROM
  • Nios II Evaluation License included 

Figure 1. Cyclone II FPGA Starter Development Board

Available documentation

Note:

1. Problem: Nios design example included with the kit does not compile or you receive a compilation error message.
   Reason: File was not included on CD shipped with kit.
   Resolution: Download this file and place into the following directory structure: altera\kits\CII_Starter_Kit-v1.0.0\Examples\CII_Starter_demonstrations\CII_Starter_NIOS

Notes:

1. Learn how to develop embedded systems for FPGAs. Does not require purchase of development kit.
2. Requires installation of Quartus II and Nios II EDS v8.1 or later (free download). 

Related links

• Other Cyclone II-based Development Kits
• Cyclone II Low-Cost FPGA Literature
• DSP in Cyclone II FPGAs
• Cyclone III-based Development Kits