FPGA Express, Version 3.4
Installation Guide

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This document explains how to install FPGA Express, a programmable logic device (PLD) logic-synthesis solution.

This installation guide contains the following sections:

• Installation Overview
   
• Product Support
   
• System Requirements
   
• Installing FPGA Express
   
• Enabling Online Document Readers
   

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Installation Overview

You can install and run FPGA Express on a PC running Windows. The main installation tasks are

• Setting up the product license and license server (Refer to Altera's installation instructions)
   
• Installing FPGA Express
   

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Product Support

For technical support, Altera provides several points of contact regarding FPGA Express.

E-Mail Support

Send e-mail to Altera Applications at

sos@altera.com

Telephone Support

Call Altera Applications at

1-800-800-EPLD (United States and Canada)

World Wide Web Site

As an FPGA Express customer, you have access to the Altera World Wide Web site at

http://www.altera.com

The Web site offers technical and general information, including

Automated assistance
Altera product descriptions and announcements
Descriptions of Altera training and support services
The Altera Technical Support (AtlasSM) database

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System Requirements

Table 1 shows the minimum system requirements for Windows installations of FPGA Express.

Table 1 Windows System Requirements

Operating system	Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows NT 4.0 (Service Pack 3 or later)
Memory	32 MB of RAM 70 MB of swap space1
Disk space for installation	50-270 MB, depending on file system and partition size (50 MB for NTFS or small FAT partition, 270 MB for large FAT partition)

1 100 MB of virtual memory (RAM + swap space) is recommended for most designs. Larger designs may require more memory.

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Installing FPGA Express

You can install FPGA Express on a Windows system by installing from the CD-ROM.

To install FPGA Express from the CD-ROM, do the following:

1. Insert the FPGA Express CD-ROM. In most cases, the setup program starts automatically. If the setup program does not start automatically, run setup.exe from the "PC" directory.
    
2. Follow the instructions on the screen.
    
3. When you are asked to provide license information, enter the name of the license server for network licensing (for example, port@hostname) or the path to the license file for node-locked licensing (for example, c:\license.dat).
    

As you move through the installation screens, note the following:

• You can install a subset of the available target devices to save disk space. To do this, check Custom in the Setup Type dialog box and follow the instructions.
   
• The program installation directory path must not contain space characters.
   

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Enabling Online Document Readers

The FPGA Express Getting Started guide, the FPGA Compiler II  / FPGA Express VHDL Reference Manual, and the FPGA Compiler II / FPGA Express Verilog HDL Reference Manual are available online in Portable Document Format (PDF). The setup program installs these documents in the directory in which you installed the software.

To read Synopsys FPGA online documents, you must have Adobe Acrobat Reader version 3.0 or later installed on your system.

To install Acrobat Reader version 3.0, use one of the following methods:

• To install Acrobat Reader on a Windows system from the FPGA Express CD-ROM, enter the command
   

  CD_ROM_drive:\acrosrch\32bit\setup.exe
  

• Download the latest Acrobat Reader from the Adobe home page at
   

  http://www.adobe.com
   

 

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