Intel® Quartus® Prime Pro Edition User Guide: PCB Design Tools

ID 683768
Date 11/04/2020
Public

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3. Mentor Graphics* PCB Design Tools Support

You can integrate the Mentor Graphics* DxDesigner* PCB design tool into the Intel® Quartus® Prime design flow.

With today’s large, high-pin-count and high-speed FPGA devices, good and correct PCB design practices are essential to ensure correct system operation. The PCB design takes place concurrently with the design and programming of the FPGA. The FPGA or ASIC designer initially creates signal and pin assignments, and the board designer must correctly transfer these assignments to the symbols in their system circuit schematics and board layout. As the board design progresses, Intel recommends reassigning pins to optimize the PCB layout. Ensure that you inform the FPGA designer of the pin reassignments so that the new assignments are included in an updated placement and routing of the design.

This chapter covers the following topics:

  • Mentor Graphics* and Intel® Quartus® Prime software integration flow
  • Generating supporting files
  • Creating DxDesigner symbols from the Intel® Quartus® Prime output files

This chapter is intended for board design and layout engineers who want to start the FPGA board integration while the FPGA is still in the design phase. Alternatively, the board designer can plan the FPGA pin-out and routing requirements in the Mentor Graphics* tools and pass the information back to the Intel® Quartus® Prime software for placement and routing. Part librarians can also benefit from this chapter by learning how to use output from the Intel® Quartus® Prime software to create new library parts and symbols.

The procedures in this chapter require the following software:

  • The Intel® Quartus® Prime software version 5.1 or later
  • DxDesigner software version 2004 or later
Note: To obtain and license the Mentor Graphics* tools and for product information, support, and training, refer to the Mentor Graphics* website.