design library Definition

Design libraries store pre-compiled VHDL units that you can reference in VHDL designs. Design libraries can contain one or more of the following units:

  • Entity Declarations
  • Architecture Declarations
  • Configuration Declarations
  • Package Declarations
  • Package Body Declarations

The Intel® Quartus® Prime software provides the altera, altera_mf, ieee, lpm, std, and wysiwyg libraries. These libraries are located in subdirectories of the \quartus\libraries\vhdl directory.

Design libraries are specified in VHDL Design Files (.vhd) with Library Clauses. (See "Section 11.2: Design libraries" in the IEEE Std 1076-1993 IEEE Standard VHDL Language Reference Manual for more information.) Because the Intel® Quartus® Prime software automatically specifies the current project directory as the work library, you do not need a Library Clause to specify the work library; however, Intel recommends that a VHDL Design File contain one Library Clause for each Use Clause.