Intel® Simics® Simulator for Altera® FPGAs: Agilex™ 5 and Agilex™ 3 Virtual Platform User Guide

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ID 786901
Date 9/29/2025
Public
Document Table of Contents
Document Table of Contents x
1. About This Document 2. Agilex™ 5/ Agilex™ 3 Intel® Simics® Virtual Platforms 3. Agilex™ 5/ Agilex™ 3 Universal Virtual Platform Component Intel® Simics® Models 4. Running a Simulation with the Agilex™ 5/ Agilex™ 3 HPS Model 5. Supported Use Cases 6. Troubleshooting Issues When Migrating Software from Intel® Simics® to Hardware A. Document Revision History for Intel Simics Simulator for Altera FPGAs Agilex™ 5/ Agilex™ 3 Virtual Platform User Guide
1. About This Document x
1.1. Terminology 1.2. List of Acronyms
2. Agilex™ 5/ Agilex™ 3 Intel® Simics® Virtual Platforms x
2.1. Agilex™ 5/ Agilex™ 3 Universal Virtual Platform
2.1. Agilex™ 5/ Agilex™ 3 Universal Virtual Platform x
2.1.1. Agilex™ 5 Universal Virtual Platform Overview 2.1.2. Agilex™ 3 Universal Virtual Platform Overview 2.1.3. Agilex™ 5 Universal Virtual Platform User-Configurable Parameters 2.1.4. Agilex™ 3 Universal Virtual Platform User-Configurable Parameters 2.1.5. Universal Virtual Platforms Key Capabilities
2.1.1. Agilex™ 5 Universal Virtual Platform Overview x
2.1.1.1. Agilex™ 5 HPS Component 2.1.1.2. HPS Subsystem Component 2.1.1.3. FPGA Fabric Design 2.1.1.4. qsys_top Component 2.1.1.5. FPGA Component 2.1.1.6. Board Component 2.1.1.7. System Component 2.1.1.8. Target Script
2.1.5. Universal Virtual Platforms Key Capabilities x
2.1.5.1. Boot-To-Operating System Prompt 2.1.5.2. Basic Ethernet 2.1.5.3. CPU Power-On and Boot Core Selection ( Agilex™ 5 only) 2.1.5.4. Reset Flow 2.1.5.5. General Purpose I/O (GPIO) Loopback 2.1.5.6. USB Disks Hot-Plug Support 2.1.5.7. On-Chip Memory IP FPGA Fabric Example Design 2.1.5.8. FPGA-to-HPS Bridges 2.1.5.9. Exercising Peripheral Subsystem in FPGA Fabric Design 2.1.5.10. USB Controller Host/Device Mode Configuration 2.1.5.11. HPS Component and Stepping Silicon Features Selection 2.1.5.12. UART1/UART2 Serial Console Selection
3. Agilex™ 5/ Agilex™ 3 Universal Virtual Platform Component Intel® Simics® Models x
3.1. HPS Intel® Simics® Model 3.2. Virtual Platform HPS Subsystem Components 3.3. Virtual Platform qsys_top Components 3.4. Virtual Platform Board Components 3.5. Modeling Support Limitations
3.1. HPS Intel® Simics® Model x
3.1.1. Agilex™ 5/ Agilex™ 3 HPS Intel® Simics® Model Architecture 3.1.2. PSS Subsystem Components 3.1.3. MPU and APS Subsystem 3.1.4. MPFE Subsystem 3.1.5. Additional Agilex™ 5/ Agilex™ 3 HPS Components 3.1.6. Agilex™ 5 B0 Features Support
3.2. Virtual Platform HPS Subsystem Components x
3.2.1. External Memory Interface (EMIF) 3.2.2. Security Device Manager (SDM)
3.3. Virtual Platform qsys_top Components x
3.3.1. FPGA Fabric
3.4. Virtual Platform Board Components x
3.4.1. Marvel EMAC PHY 3.4.2. SD Card Device 3.4.3. ONFI NAND Memory Device 3.4.4. SPI Flash Device 3.4.5. AT24Cxx EEPROM Device 3.4.6. I3C Device 3.4.7. USB Disk Device 3.4.8. Intel® Simics® Text Console
4. Running a Simulation with the Agilex™ 5/ Agilex™ 3 HPS Model x
4.1. Prerequisites 4.2. Intel® Simics® Simulation Setup for the Agilex™ 5 or Agilex™ 3 Device 4.3. Starting the Simulation 4.4. Getting Device Information from the Intel® Simics® Model
1. About This Document
2. Agilex™ 5/ Agilex™ 3 Intel® Simics® Virtual Platforms
3. Agilex™ 5/ Agilex™ 3 Universal Virtual Platform Component Intel® Simics® Models
4. Running a Simulation with the Agilex™ 5/ Agilex™ 3 HPS Model
5. Supported Use Cases
6. Troubleshooting Issues When Migrating Software from Intel® Simics® to Hardware
A. Document Revision History for Intel Simics Simulator for Altera FPGAs Agilex™ 5/ Agilex™ 3 Virtual Platform User Guide

2.1.5.1. Boot-To-Operating System Prompt

The Agilex™ 5 Universal Virtual Platform and Agilex™ 3 Universal Virtual Platform allow exercising the HPS software in all parts of the boot flow for Linux* and Zephyr* operating systems. It provides the Intel® Simics® model of all hardware components needed for the boot flow.

  • The exercised boot flow for Linux* operating systems goes from U-Boot SPL (FSBL) to Linux prompt passing through ATF and U-Boot (SSBL).
  • The exercised boot flow for Zephyr* operating systems goes from ATF to Zephyr*, which immediately launches the application to run.

You can exercise the boot flow from a flash device such as an SD Card, NAND flash, or QSPI flash. Booting from an SD Card is the default boot mode.

For this capability, the following user-configurable parameters from the target script are used:

  • Boot from SD Card: create_hps_sd_card = TRUE, fsbl_image_filename and sd_image_filename.
  • Boot from NAND: create_hps_sd_card = FALSE, fsbl_image_filename, nand_data_image_filename and nand_spare_image_filename.
  • Boot from QSPI: create_hps_sd_card = FALSE, fsbl_image_filename and qspi_image_filename.
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