Vintage Altera

[@rt]

Hi Guys I was given some old tubes of Altera, and if possible would like to have a go at writing for them since I have never touched FPGA,
and since they were free, it doesn’t matter too much if I wrecked them, or am unsuccessful.
The chips are: EPM7032LC44-10, EPM5032DC, EPM7064LC44-15, EPM5032PC, and (not Altera) CY7C342B-35JC.

I have no specific design goal other than to see if I can use them, so my question:
Can a programmer still be purchased for these? or potentially be home-brewed, and software available?
I only assume there might be a problem because I think these chips are from the mid to late 90’s.

I realise the programmers are probably expensive, and may not be compatible with vintage chips,
and the first part would rule it out for me anyway!
Cheers, Brek.

[Rasz]

hardware wont be a problem, software might

my old post from hackaday:

"Personally I Have a box full of brand new Kodak PalmPix cameras for Palmpilots ($1 each)
 They got 512KB dram, AT90S8615 and altera flex epf8282atc100-4
 Sadly I wasnt able to find Quartus version supporting this chip (free/education versions lack license)

I also have Pinnacle Studio MP10 with EPF6016QC208 (same story about Quartus).

Those are from the times when FPGA was magic and you had to pay out of your ass for dev tools "

altera byteblaster ($15 usb or homemade lpt) will work with all of them, software license to generate projects targeting them might be different story. I wasnt lucky

[AndyC_772]

Get yourself a USB Blaster off Ebay, and download Quartus II version 13.1, which is the last release that supports the MAX 7000 series.

http://dl.altera.com/13.0sp1/?edition=web

The MAX 5000 devices are very old (data sheet is 1999). You'd need to download and install Max Plus II, which was the earlier development software:

https://www.altera.com/support/support-resources/design-software/max_plus-ii/sof-maxplus2.html

[free_electron]

Those are OTP devices. one time programmable. ...

[Kjelt]

Some of those max5000 did have a window and you could erase them with uv light, not sure if these are the same.
I also have some of these uv erasable chips left but my problem 12 yrs ago or so as I recall is that maxplus had a very expensive license, is there a free version around now after 15 years?

[Kjelt]

BTW I really never ever understood why a hardware company that makes loads of money on their chips which is their core business wants expensive licenses for their software, bullocks!

[rsjsouza]

BTW I really never ever understood why a hardware company that makes loads of money on their chips which is their core business wants expensive licenses for their software, bullocks!

I am not 100% sure about the FPGA business, but for microprocessors this was only true in the old days, when everything cost a lot of money to enter the club. Nowadays most is free (or very reasonably priced).

[@rt]

Thanks for the replies
I was given tubes of them for free so OTP is not a problem, and one of them is windowed.
I didn’t realise there were cheap dev boards available, and was always under the impression that it was into the thousands to get into,
so I might look into something newer so long as I don’t get stung too much with the software side.
Cheers, Brek.

[electro-logic]

Hello,

You can use USB Blaster to program the MAX7000 that is the most interesting IC of all.

I don't think they are OTP but they are programmable a limited number of times like one hundred.

I have proposed an homebrew devboard for EPM3064 that is very similar and can be adapted to EPM7032/7064 (just compare pinout and make need changes) and that can be made with toner transfer:

http://electro-logic.blogspot.it/2014/02/logiche-programmabili-un-possibile.html

Have fun,
Leonardo

PS: Try google or bing translate to translate article if you don't read Italian