Intel® Quartus® Prime Pro Edition User Guide: Third-party Simulation

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ID 683870
Date 10/02/2023
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Document Table of Contents
Document Table of Contents x
1. Answers to Top FAQs 2. Intel FPGA Simulation Basics 3. Siemens EDA QuestaSim* Simulator Support 4. Synopsys VCS* and VCS MX Support 5. Aldec Active-HDL and Riviera-PRO Support 6. Cadence Xcelium* Parallel Simulator Support 7. Intel® Quartus® Prime Pro Edition User Guide Third-party Simulation Archive A. Intel® Quartus® Prime Pro Edition User Guides
2. Intel FPGA Simulation Basics x
2.1. Intel FPGA Simulation Essential Elements 2.2. Overview of Simulation Tool Flow 2.3. Simulation Tool Flow 2.4. Supported Simulation Types 2.5. Supported Hardware Description Languages 2.6. Supported Simulators 2.7. Intel FPGA Simulation Basics Revision History
2.2. Overview of Simulation Tool Flow x
2.2.1. Compilation Stage 2.2.2. Elaboration Stage 2.2.3. Simulation Stage
2.3. Simulation Tool Flow x
2.3.1. Specifying Logical Libraries 2.3.2. Compiling Files Into Library Directories 2.3.3. The Intel® Quartus® Prime Simulation Library 2.3.4. Understanding Elaboration 2.3.5. Commands To Configure and Run Simulation 2.3.6. Intel FPGA Simulation Generic Workflow
2.3.1. Specifying Logical Libraries x
2.3.1.1. Why Do We Need Logical Library Names?
2.3.2. Compiling Files Into Library Directories x
2.3.2.1. Inputs to Compilation Commands 2.3.2.2. Order of Files for Compilation Commands 2.3.2.3. Compilation Command Line Options 2.3.2.4. Module Definitions in Library Directories
2.3.3. The Intel® Quartus® Prime Simulation Library x
2.3.3.1. The Intel® Quartus® Prime Simulation Library Compiler 2.3.3.2. Running the Simulation Library Compiler in a Terminal 2.3.3.3. Running the Simulation Library Compiler in the GUI 2.3.3.4. Finding Logical Library Names in Simulation Library Compiler Output
2.3.4. Understanding Elaboration x
2.3.4.1. Elaboration Binding Phase 2.3.4.2. Elaboration Checks 2.3.4.3. Elaboration Options
3. Siemens EDA QuestaSim* Simulator Support x
3.1. Quick Start Example (QuestaSim* with Verilog) 3.2. QuestaSim* Simulator Guidelines 3.3. QuestaSim* Simulation Setup Script Example 3.4. Sourcing QuestaSim* Simulator Setup Scripts 3.5. Unsupported Features 3.6. QuestaSim* Simulator Support Revision History
3.2. QuestaSim* Simulator Guidelines x
3.2.1. Passing Parameter Information from Verilog HDL to VHDL 3.2.2. Viewing Simulation Messages 3.2.3. Generating Signal Activity Data for Power Analysis 3.2.4. Viewing Simulation Waveforms
4. Synopsys VCS* and VCS MX Support x
4.1. Quick Start Example (VCS with Verilog) 4.2. VCS and VCS MX Guidelines 4.3. VCS Simulation Setup Script Example 4.4. Sourcing Synopsys VCS* MX Simulator Setup Scripts 4.5. Sourcing Synopsys VCS* Simulator Setup Scripts 4.6. Synopsys VCS* and VCS MX Support Revision History
5. Aldec Active-HDL and Riviera-PRO Support x
5.1. Quick Start Example (Active-HDL VHDL) 5.2. Aldec Active-HDL and Riviera-PRO Guidelines 5.3. Using Simulation Setup Scripts 5.4. Sourcing Aldec ActiveHDL* or Riviera Pro* Simulator Setup Scripts 5.5. Aldec Active-HDL* and Riviera-PRO * Support Revision History
6. Cadence Xcelium* Parallel Simulator Support x
6.1. Using the Command-Line Interface 6.2. Sourcing Cadence Xcelium* Simulator Setup Scripts 6.3. Sourcing Cadence Incisive* Simulator Setup Scripts 6.4. Cadence Xcelium* Parallel Simulator Support Revision History
1. Answers to Top FAQs
2. Intel FPGA Simulation Basics
3. Siemens EDA QuestaSim* Simulator Support
4. Synopsys VCS* and VCS MX Support
5. Aldec Active-HDL and Riviera-PRO Support
6. Cadence Xcelium* Parallel Simulator Support
7. Intel® Quartus® Prime Pro Edition User Guide Third-party Simulation Archive
A. Intel® Quartus® Prime Pro Edition User Guides

2.5. Supported Hardware Description Languages

The Intel® Quartus® Prime software provides the following hardware description language (HDL) support for EDA simulators.
Table 3.  HDL Support
Language Support Description

VHDL

  • For VHDL simulation, you compile design files, testbench files, and Platform designer generated RTL files using simulator commands.
  • For all supported simulators other than Questa* Intel® FPGA Edition, you must also compile simulation models from the Intel FPGA simulation libraries.
  • Many of the Intel® Quartus® Prime simulation models and IP RTL files are implemented in Verilog or SystemVerilog only. Therefore, you may require a simulator that is capable of VHDL and Verilog HDL mixed language simulation.

Verilog /SystemVerilog

  • For Verilog or SystemVerilog simulation, you compile design files, testbench files, and Platform Designer generated RTL files using simulator commands.
  • For all supported simulators other than Questa* Intel® FPGA Edition, you must also compile simulation models from the Intel FPGA simulation libraries.
  • There are some IP RTL files that are implemented in VHDL only. Therefore, you may require a simulator that is capable of VHDL and Verilog HDL mixed language simulation.

Mixed HDL

  • If your design is a mix of VHDL, Verilog HDL, and SystemVerilog files, you must use a mixed language simulator.
  • The Questa* Intel® FPGA Edition software supports native, mixed-language (VHDL/Verilog HDL/SystemVerilog) simulation.

    If you have a VHDL-only simulator and need to simulate Verilog HDL modules and IP cores, you can either acquire a mixed-language simulator license from the simulator vendor, or use the Questa* Intel® FPGA Edition simulator.

Schematic

  • You cannot simulate a schematic in any of the simulators that the Intel® Quartus® Prime software supports.
  • To perform RTL simulation of the schematic, you must convert the schematic to HDL format and run RTL simulation on the HDL. The Intel® Quartus® Prime Pro Edition software cannot perform schematic conversion.
  • To perform post-synthesis or post-fit simulation, you must first compile the schematic based design in the Intel® Quartus® Prime software, generate a gate-level Verilog HDL or VHDL simulation netlist, and perform simulation on the gate-level netlist.
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