View source

The [http://www.terasic.com.tw/cgi-bin/page/archive.pl?Language=English&No=83 Altera DE1] is an Evaluation/Educational FPGA development board made by [http://www.terasic.com.tw/cgi-bin/page/archive.pl?Language=English&CategoryNo=39 Terasic] in Taiwan.

It is one of the best off the shelf boards for Retro FPGA work due to it's feature set, it's price and popularity.

=== Features ===
Quoting from the Terasic Website:-
* Altera Cyclone II 2C20 FPGA with 20000 LEs
* Altera Serial Configuration deivices (EPCS4) for Cyclone II 2C20
* USB Blaster built in on board for programming and user API controlling
* JTAG Mode and AS Mode are supported
* 8Mbyte (1M x 4 x 16) SDRAM
* 4Mbyte Flash Memory
* 512Kbyte(256Kx16) SRAM
* SD Card Socket
* 4 Push-button switches
* 10 DPDT switches
* 8 Green User LEDs
* 10 Red User LEDs
* 4 Seven-segment LED displays
* 50MHz oscillator, 24MHz oscillator, 27MHz oscillator and external clock sources
* 24-bit CD-Quality Audio CODEC with line-in, line-out, and microphone-in jacks
* VGA DAC (4-bit R-2R per channel) with VGA out connector
* RS-232 Transceiver and 9-pin connector
* PS/2 mouse/keyboard connector
* Two 40-pin Expansion Headers
* DE1 Lab CD-ROM which contains many examples with source code

=== Getting Started ===
We have a getting started guide here :-
[[Altera DE1 Installation guide]]

At the time of writing the Zet used the resources of the DE1 are used as follows:-
* PS/2 is the Keyboard input
* VGA is the Display Output
* SW0 Slide Switch acts as a Reset Switch (Up to Reset)
* SW1 Select the boot device (Down for SD Card, Up for Floppy (Flash) Boot)
* Seven Segment Display shows the upper 16 bits of the Program Counter in Hex

=== Serial Communications ===
The Serial port of the DE1 is a simple 3 wire one with just Ground, Transmit and Receive. It has a Female connector and a Modem style pin out so needs a 1-1 Male to Female DB9 cable. This is the same as a 9 Pin Extension Cable. It does not need a laplink (Crossover) style cable and due to the sex of the connectors such a cable will not plug in anyway!