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

2.1.4. Agilex™ 3 Universal Virtual Platform User-Configurable Parameters

The Agilex™ 3 Universal Virtual Platform has the following user-configurable parameters provided in the target script:

Table 8.   Agilex™ 3 Universal Virtual Platform Parameters
Parameter Description
create_hps_eth0_network

Create a basic Ethernet network and connect it to the eth0 peripheral of the Hard Processor System Agilex™ 3 FPGA IP.

  • Range: Boolean
  • Default value: True
create_hps_sd_card

Create the SD card in the board component and connect it to the SD/eMMC controller. You can set either the create_hps_sd_card or create_hps_mmc parameter to true at a time.

  • Range: Boolean
  • Default value: True
create_hps_mmc

Create the eMMC card in the board component and connect it to the SD/eMMC controller. You can set either the create_hps_sd_card or create_hps_mmc parameter to true at a time.

  • Range: Boolean
  • Default value: False
create_hps_serial0_console

create_hps_serial1_console

Create a console component (serial console) and connect it to the corresponding UART controller peripheral of the Hard Processor System Agilex™ 3 FPGA IP.

The create_hps_serial0_console component is for UART0.

The create_hps_serial1_console component is for UART1.

  • Range: Boolean
  • Default values:
    • create_hps_serial0_console : True
    • create_hps_serial1_console : False
fsbl_image_filename

First stage bootloader file. Supported format is .bin .

  • Range: File name string.
  • Default value: ""
hps_boot_core

The CPU to use as the boot core.

  • Range: N/A
  • Value: 0

This parameter is restricted to 0 as Core 0 is the only core that can be used to boot.
hps_core0_1_power_on

The power-on states of CPU 0.

  • Range: N/A
  • Value: True

This parameter is restricted to TRUE as there are no other cores that can be used to boot.
hps_core2_power_on

The power-on state of CPU 2.

  • Range: N/A
  • Default value: FALSE

This parameter is ignored and restricted to FALSE as this core is disable on Agilex™ 3 devices.
hps_core3_power_on

The power-on state of CPU 3.

  • Range: N/A
  • Default value: FALSE

This parameter is ignored and restricted to FALSE as this core is disable on Agilex™ 3 devices.
sd_image_filename

Name of the SD image to load into the SD memory model of the board component. The supported format is .craff, .img, or .wic.

  • Range: File name string.
  • Default value: ""
nand_data_image_filename

Name of the NAND image to load into the NAND memory model of the board component. The supported format is raw binary (.bin or .craff).

  • Range: File name string.
  • Default value: ""
nand_spare_image_filename

Name of the NAND spare image to load into the NAND memory model of the board component. The supported format is raw binary (.bin or .craff).

  • Range: File name string.
  • Default value: ""
qspi_image_filename

Name of the QSPI image to load into the QSPI memory model of the board component. The supported format is raw binary (.bin or .craff).

  • Range: File name string.
  • Default value: ""
usb3_image_filename

Name of the USB disk image that corresponds to the usb3_disk (SuperSpeed disk) in the board component. The image file must be smaller or equal than the disk size.

The supported format is .craff, .img or .wic.

  • Range: File name string.
  • Default value: ""
Note: usb3_disk is connected to usb1_typec port when a valid image file is provided by this parameter.
usb3_hs_image_filename

Name of the USB disk image that corresponds to the usb3_hs_disk (high-speed disk) in the board component. The image file must be smaller or equal than the disk size.

The supported format is .craff, .img or .wic.

  • Range: File name string.
  • Default value: ""
Note: usb3_hs_disk is connected to usb1_typec port if a valid image file is provided through the usb3_hs_image_filename parameter and usb1_typec port is available (when a valid image file is not provided in the usb3_image_filename parameter).
usb_otg_image_filename

Name of the USB disk image that corresponds to the usbotg_disk (high-speed disk) in the board component. The image file must be smaller or equal than the disk size.

The supported format is .craff, .img or .wic.

  • Range: File name string.
  • Default value: ""
Note: The usbotg_disk is connected to the usb0_otg port when a valid image file is provided by this parameter.
hps_cpu_freq_mhz ARM cores frequency in Megahertz (MHz).
  • Range: Integer between 400 and 800
  • Default value: 400 MHz
stepping Select the silicon features that the Agilex™ 3 Simics model supports.
  • Range: B0
  • Value: B0

    The silicon features supported by the Agilex™ 3 Simics model are restricted to the production version of the Agilex™ 3 device.
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