Description
Follow these steps to use the Fast Simulation Models in designs targeting Agilex™ 7 FPGA, Agilex™ 5 FPGA, or Agilex™ 3 FPGA devices to improve simulation time in the Quartus® Prime Pro Edition Software version 24.3.1 onwards.
Resolution
- Generate the example design from the .ip file or create a custom design for simulation (the same as the current flow).
- Update the auto-generated simulation script to point to Fast Simulation Models in Agilex™ 7 FPGA, Agilex™ 5 FPGA, or Agilex™ 3 FPGA designs by setting the following variables with either of the following methods:
- Method 1: For Questasim
- Update the Tcl-based scripts (msim_setup.tcl) with the following variables:
- set DEVICES_SIM_LIB_DIR "$QUARTUS_INSTALL_DIR/../devices/sim_lib2/"
- set QUARTUS_SIM_LIB_DIR "$QUARTUS_INSTALL_DIR/eda/sim_lib2/"
- Update the Tcl-based scripts (msim_setup.tcl) with the following variables:
- Method 2: For VCS (2-step), VCS (3-step)
- Update the qsys-generated script (sh based scripts: vcs_setup.sh or vcsmx_setup.sh) with the following variables:
- DEVICES_SIM_LIB_DIR="$QUARTUS_INSTALL_DIR/../devices/sim_lib2/"
- QUARTUS_SIM_LIB_DIR="$QUARTUS_INSTALL_DIR/eda/sim_lib2/"
- Update the qsys-generated script (sh based scripts: vcs_setup.sh or vcsmx_setup.sh) with the following variables:
- Method 1: For Questasim
- Update the auto-generated simulation scripts to remove commands/options that slow down the simulation.
- Questasim:
- In the top-level example design simulation script, ensure ld and elab are called (instead of ld_debug and elab_debug).
- Remove -voptargs=+acc under elab_debug in mentor/msim_setup.tcl and under proc get_elab_options in common/modelsim_files.tcl if present.
- Remove commands that dump out waveforms and other commands/options that can slow down the simulation.
- VCS (2-step), VCS (3-step):
- Remove any debug elaboration options in the top-level script ( start with -debug_ )
- Remove the -kdb option and any elaboration and simulation options to dump waveforms (such as +fsdb or +vpd dumps)
- Questasim:
The IP example design for these devices has been enabled to use Fast Simulation Models by default in the Quartus® Prime Pro Edition Software version 25.1.1 onwards.