Quartus® Prime Pro Edition User Guide: Platform Designer

ID 683609
Date 4/01/2024
Public

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Document Table of Contents

3.1.2. Component Structure

Intel provides components automatically installed with the Quartus® Prime software.
To obtain a list of all Platform Designer-compliant components available from third-party IP developers, follow these steps:
  1. Navigate to the Intel FPGA Find IP web page.
  2. In the Find IP search results, click the Platform Designer (Qsys) Compliant column filter to show all Platform Designer-compliant components.
  3. Further refine the search results by selecting the End Market, Technology, Devices, or Provider search filter. The Provider filter allows you to select specific third-party IP partners.

Every Platform Designer-compliant component is defined with a <component_name>_hw.tcl file. This file is a text file written in the Tcl scripting language that describes the component to Platform Designer. When you design your own custom component, you can create the _hw.tcl file manually, or by using the Platform Designer Component Editor.

The Component Editor simplifies the process of creating _hw.tcl files by creating a file that you can edit outside of the Component Editor to add advanced procedures. When you edit a previously saved _hw.tcl file, Platform Designer automatically backs up the earlier version as _hw.tcl~.

You can move component files into a new directory, such as a network location, so that other users can use the component in their systems. The _hw.tcl file contains relative paths to the other files, so if you move an _hw.tcl file, you should also move all the HDL and other files associated with it.

There are four component types:
  • Static— static components always generate the same output, regardless of their parameterization. Components that instantiate static components must have only static children.
  • Generated—generated component's fileset callback allows an instance of the component to create unique HDL design files based on the instance's parameter values.
  • Composed—composed components are subsystems constructed from instances of other components. You can use a composition callback to manage the subsystem in a composed component.
  • Generic—generic components allow instantiation of IP components without an HDL implementation. Generic components enable hierarchical isolation between system interconnect and IP components.