Getting started

Getting started

You should have a terasIC DE0-Nano in front of you. This is the board we'll use for this workshop. The software and user manual for the board can be found here.

Hardware and driver check

To test that the drivers are installed correctly and that the board is not dead, follow the instructions in the "Quick Start Guide" leaflet that came with the board. (Make sure the correct drivers are installed if you run into trouble.)

Setting up a new project

New Quartus project

We'll be using Altera's Quartus II Web Edition and Mentor's ModelSim-Altera EDA tools. (Those should be / have been installed on your computer before the workshop.)

In the codebase you'll only find Verilog files. Those should be copied and imported into a new project that is set up for the DE0-Nano. Here's how to set a project up:

• Open terasIC's System Builder (DE0_Nano_SystemBuilder.exe) and change the project's name to appropriate name. Click "Generate" and note where the files were saved.
• Launch Quartus II and open the 'New Project Wizard' (File->New Project Wizard...) ...
• Copy the following files that were generated by the System Builder:
• Copy the Verilog files into the project's directory
• Import the Verilog and constraints files

You should now be able to double click "Assembler" in the "Tasks" pane and have it go through without errors (but with a lot of warning that you can ignore for now). To Download the bitstream to the FPGA, double-click "Program Device" and click "Start".

ModelSim simulation

To set up Quartus for launching ModelSim do the following: ...