I'm working on a design using an Altera Cyclone and a NIOS processor. I'm having a little trouble working out exactly where things stand for copyrights and licenses for the code, especially the NIOS software.
As I understand it, the intention of the Altera licensing is that I can use the design and my code, along with the NIOS libraries, on any system I want as long as the programable logic is an Altera device (which is fair enough). However, I have a couple of questions about the details:
Each vhdl file generated from a schematic block has an Altera copyright notice. I presume I am free to add our my copyright notice to cover my own additions to the module?
I presume I am free to use my own closed-source license on any software modules I write, and link them to the NIOS libraries (including the plugs libraries). Am I able to include parts of Altera's example code in these, and if so, do I need to add copyright clauses there?
What about using an open-source license (GPL in particular)? Can I use GPL'ed code in my software? I am well aware that I would have to GPL my own code that uses it, but what about the library code that is generated for the NIOS? Presumably I could not GPL that - is it okay to just make my own code available as GPL'ed?
Thanks,
David
-- David
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