Device Design Guidelines: Agilex™ 3 FPGAs and SoCs

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ID 849807
Date 7/09/2025
Public
Document Table of Contents
Document Table of Contents x
1. Introduction to Agilex™ 3 Device Design Guidelines 2. System Specification 3. Device Selection 4. Design Entry 5. Board and Software consideration 6. Design Implementation, Analysis, Optimization and Verification 7. Debugging
1. Introduction to Agilex™ 3 Device Design Guidelines x
1.1. Design Flow 1.2. Introduction to Agilex™ 3 Device Design Guide Revision History
2. System Specification x
2.1. Design Specification 2.2. Install Quartus® Prime Software 2.3. IP selection 2.4. Simulation 2.5. Preparing for Design Entry 2.6. I/O Summary 2.7. Using SDM in your devices 2.8. System Specification Revision History
2.3. IP selection x
2.3.1. IP cores 2.3.2. HPS IP
2.3.1. IP cores x
2.3.1.1. Interface Protocol IP cores
2.4. Simulation x
2.4.1. RTL Simulation 2.4.2. Simics® Simulator
2.5. Preparing for Design Entry x
2.5.1. Coding Styles and Design Recommendation 2.5.2. Platform Designer
3. Device Selection x
3.1. Device Variant 3.2. Device Selection Revision History
3.1. Device Variant x
3.1.1. Speed Grade and Package 3.1.2. Power option 3.1.3. Device Migration within Agilex™ 3 3.1.4. PLL 3.1.5. Logic element, Embedded memory, and DSP 3.1.6. I/O and LVDS SERDES 3.1.7. MIPI D-PHY 3.1.8. Transceiver 3.1.9. Hard Processor System
4. Design Entry x
4.1. Design entry for FPGA 4.2. Design entry for Nios® V 4.3. Design entry for HPS 4.4. Design Entry Revision History
4.1. Design entry for FPGA x
4.1.1. Configuration Consideration 4.1.2. I/O and LVDS SERDES 4.1.3. PLL and Clock Planning 4.1.4. EMIF 4.1.5. Transceiver Planning 4.1.6. Sensors 4.1.7. MIPI D-PHY
4.1.1. Configuration Consideration x
4.1.1.1. Partial Reconfiguration 4.1.1.2. SEU
4.1.2. I/O and LVDS SERDES x
4.1.2.1. Making FPGA Pin Assignments Checklist 4.1.2.2. Early Pin Planning and I/O Assignment Analysis for the FPGA Device 4.1.2.3. Agilex™ 3 I/O Features and Pin Connections
4.1.2.3. Agilex™ 3 I/O Features and Pin Connections x
4.1.2.3.1. I/O Signaling Type 4.1.2.3.2. Selectable Standards and Flexible I/O Banks 4.1.2.3.3. Agilex™ 3 Dual-Purpose and Special Pin Connections 4.1.2.3.4. Agilex™ 3 I/O Features
4.1.3. PLL and Clock Planning x
4.1.3.1. Clock and PLL Selection 4.1.3.2. PLL Feature Guidelines 4.1.3.3. Clock Feedback Mode 4.1.3.4. Clock Outputs 4.1.3.5. Clock Control Features
4.1.6. Sensors x
4.1.6.1. Voltage sensor 4.1.6.2. Temperature Sensor and Temperature Diode
4.3. Design entry for HPS x
4.3.1. Simics® Simulator 4.3.2. HPS IP Instantiation in Quartus® Prime 4.3.3. Embedded Software
5. Board and Software consideration x
5.1. Early Board Planning 5.2. Boundary Scan for FPGA and HPS 5.3. Pin Connection Considerations for Board Design 5.4. Planning for Device Configuration 5.5. Board and Software Consideration Revision History
5.1. Early Board Planning x
5.1.1. Power - Fixed Voltage 5.1.2. Thermal Management and Design
5.1.1. Power - Fixed Voltage x
5.1.1.1. Power and Thermal Calculator 5.1.1.2. Power-Up and Power-Down Sequencing
5.3. Pin Connection Considerations for Board Design x
5.3.1. Board-Related Quartus® Prime Settings 5.3.2. Signal Integrity Considerations 5.3.3. Board-Level Simulation and Advanced I/O Timing Analysis
5.3.1. Board-Related Quartus® Prime Settings x
5.3.1.1. Unused Pins
5.3.2. Signal Integrity Considerations x
5.3.2.1. High-Speed Board Design 5.3.2.2. Simultaneous Switching Noise 5.3.2.3. I/O Termination
5.4. Planning for Device Configuration x
5.4.1. Device Power Cycling and Reconfiguration 5.4.2. Configuration Scheme Selection 5.4.3. Configuration Features 5.4.4. Quartus® Prime Configuration Settings 5.4.5. Configuration Pin Connections 5.4.6. JTAG Pins 5.4.7. MSEL Configuration Mode Pins
5.4.2. Configuration Scheme Selection x
5.4.2.1. Serial Configuration Devices 5.4.2.2. Intel® FPGA Download Cable II
5.4.4. Quartus® Prime Configuration Settings x
5.4.4.1. Optional Configuration Pins 5.4.4.2. Dual Purpose Configuration Pins
5.4.5. Configuration Pin Connections x
5.4.5.1. Configuration Pin Voltage Level 5.4.5.2. Clock Trace Signal Integrity
5.4.6. JTAG Pins x
5.4.6.1. JTAG Pin Connections 5.4.6.2. JTAG Signal Buffering 5.4.6.3. Download Cable Operating Voltage
6. Design Implementation, Analysis, Optimization and Verification x
6.1. Synthesis Tool 6.2. Device Resource Reports 6.3. Quartus® Prime Message 6.4. Design Assistant Design Rule Checking 6.5. Timing Constraints and Analysis 6.6. Area and Timing Optimization 6.7. Preserving Performance and Reducing Compilation Time 6.8. Designing with Hyperflex® 6.9. Simulation 6.10. Power Analysis 6.11. Design Implementation, Analysis, Optimization and Verification Revision History
6.5. Timing Constraints and Analysis x
6.5.1. Recommended Timing Optimization and Analysis Assignments 6.5.2. SDC-on-RTL and Post-Synthesis Static Timing Analysis
7. Debugging x
7.1. On-Chip Debug Overview 7.2. On-Chip Debugging Tools 7.3. Debugging Revision History
1. Introduction to Agilex™ 3 Device Design Guidelines
2. System Specification
3. Device Selection
4. Design Entry
5. Board and Software consideration
6. Design Implementation, Analysis, Optimization and Verification
7. Debugging

2.4.1. RTL Simulation

Simulation allows you to verify the design behavior before configuring the FPGA device with the verified design. You can specify input vectors to your simulator and then the simulator determines and reports the expected corresponding outputs during the run time you specify.

The Altera FPGA simulation process involves setting up your supported simulator working environment, compiling simulation model libraries, generating simulation files, running your simulator, and interpreting the results.

The Quartus® Prime software does not include a native simulator but provides support for the specific RTL- and gate-level EDA simulators.

For more information on how to perform design simulations, refer to the following documents:

  • Questa* Intel® FPGA Edition Quick-Start: Quartus® Prime Pro Edition
  • Quartus® Prime Pro Edition User Guide: Third-party Simulation
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