Intel® Quartus® Prime Pro Edition User Guide: Getting Started

ID 683463
Date 3/28/2022
Public

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4.5. Best Practices for Intel® FPGA IP

Use the following best practices when working with Intel® FPGA IP:
  • Do not manually edit or write your own .qsys, .ip, or .qip file. Use the Intel® Quartus® Prime software tools to create and edit these files.
    Note: When generating IP cores, do not generate files into a directory that has a space in the directory name or path. Spaces are not legal characters for IP core paths or names.
  • When you generate an IP core using the IP Catalog, the Intel® Quartus® Prime software generates a .qsys (for Platform Designer-generated IP cores) or a .ip file (for Intel® Quartus® Prime Pro Edition) or a .qip file. The Intel® Quartus® Prime Pro Edition software automatically adds the generated .ip to your project. In the Intel® Quartus® Prime Standard Edition software, add the .qip to your project. Do not add the parameter editor generated file (.v or .vhd) to your design without the .qsys or .qip file. Otherwise, you cannot use the IP upgrade or IP parameter editor feature.
  • Plan your directory structure ahead of time. Do not change the relative path between a .qsys file and it's generation output directory. If you must move the .qsys file, ensure that the generation output directory remains with the .qsys file.
  • Do not add IP core files directly from the /quartus/libraries/megafunctions directory in your project. Otherwise, you must update the files for each subsequent software release. Instead, use the IP Catalog and then add the .qip to your project.
  • Do not use IP files that the Intel® Quartus® Prime software generates for RAM or FIFO blocks targeting older device families (even though the Intel® Quartus® Prime software does not issue an error). The RAM blocks that Intel® Quartus® Prime generates for older device families are not optimized for the latest device families.
  • When generating a ROM function, save the resulting .mif or .hex file in the same folder as the corresponding IP core's .qsys or .qip file. For example, moving all of your project's .mif or .hex files to the same directory causes relative path problems after archiving the design.
  • Always use the Intel® Quartus® Prime ip-setup-simulation and ip-make-simscript utilities to generate simulation scripts for each IP core or Platform Designer system in your design. These utilities produce a single simulation script that does not require manual update for upgrades to Intel® Quartus® Prime software or IP versions, as Simulating Intel FPGA IP Cores describes.