Intel® Simics® Simulator for Altera® FPGAs: Agilex™ 5 and Agilex™ 3 Virtual Platform User Guide
ID
786901
Date
9/29/2025
Public
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
2.1.1. 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
2.1.5.1. 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
2.1.5.11. HPS Component and Stepping Silicon Features Selection
The Agilex™ 5 Universal Virtual Platform allows you to select the stepping silicon features that the HPS Agilex™ 5 Simics model supports by setting the stepping parameter in the target script. This parameter accepts the value of A0 or B0.
The Agilex™ 3 Universal Virtual Platform has the stepping parameter locked to B0 to match the features that support the production-level device.
For the Agilex™ 5 Universal Virtual Platform, you can also use this stepping parameter to choose the model of the HPS in the Agilex 5 device, which could be the HPS in the Agilex 5 E-Series device, or the HPS in the Agilex 5 D-Series device. The following table describes this in detail.
Device | Stepping Parameter | Description |
---|---|---|
Agilex™ 5 E-Series | A0 | Selects the HPS features to match the A0 (engineering sample) stepping. |
B0 | Selects the HPS features to match the B0 (production) stepping. | |
Agilex™ 5 D-Series | B0 | Selects the HPS features to match the B0 (production) stepping, which corresponds to the HPS model of Agilex 5 D-Series devices. |
Agilex™ 3 C-Series | B0 (forced setting) | Selects the HPS features to match the B0 (production) stepping. |
Note: Agilex™ 5 Universal Virtual Platform stepping features support is released in the 24.1 Intel® Simics® Simulator for Altera® FPGAs release although the default stepping during the project deployment remains being A0. You can override the default stepping using the stepping parameter from the target script. In this case, the B0 features are enabled in the Agilex™ 5 E-Series model.