intel Quartus Prime Pro Edition Software User Guide

1. Prerequisites on page 3
2. Open the Example Design on page 6
3. Specify EDA Tool Settings on page 7
4. Generate a Simulator Setup Script Template on page 8
5. Create the Simulation Script on page 9
6. Compile and Simulate the Design on page 12
7. View Signal Waveforms on page 13
8. Add Signals to the Simulation on page 15
9. Rerun Simulation on page 16

Prerequisites
Both Questa*-Intel FPGA Edition and Questa-Intel FPGA Starter Edition software require valid software licenses. However, the Questa-Intel FPGA Starter Edition license is free.
Downloading the Questa-Intel FPGA Edition and Questa-Intel FPGA Starter Edition Software
To download the software with individual executable files:

1. Visit the FPGA Software Download Center page.
2. Using the left-hand filter pane, perform the following steps to refine the search results:
   • Select the Intel Quartus Prime Design Software option. This displays three Intel Quartus Prime software editions (Pro, Standard or Lite).
   • Select the Intel Quartus Prime Pro software edition. This displays a list of supported software versions.
   • Select the operating system (Linux or Microsoft Windows*).
3. In the refined list of pages, click on the desired page to download the software.
4. Under the Downloads section, click the Individual Files tab.
5. Download the Questa-Intel FPGA Edition (Includes Starter Edition) software file(s) by clicking the Download button below each file name.

Refer to Downloading and Installing Intel FPGA Software in the Intel FPGA Software Installation and Licensing for additional information.

Generating the License
You can obtain a license for the Questa-Intel FPGA Edition and Questa-Intel FPGA Starter Edition software from the Intel FPGA Self Service Licensing Center (SSLC). If you do not have access to SSLC, you must first complete registering to SSLC and create an account by visiting Register for Intel FPGA Self Service Licensing Center (SSLC).
Follow these steps to generate the license:

1. Go to the Intel FPGA Self-Service Licensing Center (SSLC).
2. Select the Sign up for Evaluation or Free Licenses option on the menu bar.
3. In the list of products displayed, select the Questa-Intel FPGA Starter Edition SW-QUESTA option.
4. Under the # of Seats column, enter the number of seats you require.
5. Read the license terms of use.
6. Select the “I have read and agree to the terms of use of this license as listed below” check box.
7. Click Get License. A pop-up window displays asking you to which computer should the license be assigned. You can use one of the following options:
   • Option 1: Click Create a New Computer if you want to assign the license to a new computer. You must provide information about the required hardware and license type. For information about the license type, refer to Intel FPGA Software License Types. For information about how to extract information about your computer hardware, refer to Hardware Information Required When You Request a License.
   • Option 2: Click Assign an Existing Computer and search for the computer name/NIC ID that you have created previously in your My Intel account. To view your list of computers, use of the following options:
   • Visit the License Assistant and select Regenerate License by Primary Computer ➤ View all computers and select
   • On the SSLC menu bar, click Computers and License Files and select the desired option.
8. Click Generate. You receive an email with the license attached to your registered email address.
9. Save the license.dat file on your computer (for example, ~/ intelFPGA_pro/LR-xxxxxx_License.dat).

Note:
Before using Questa-Intel FPGA Edition and Questa-Intel FPGA Starter Edition software, you must set an environment variable to point to the location of the license.
Setting Up the Questa-Intel FPGA Starter Edition Software License
After you receive and save the license.dat file on your computer, follow these instructions:

On Windows System

1. Go to This PC, right-click, and select Properties.
2. Click Advanced System Setting.
3. In the Advanced tab, select Environment Variable.
4. Under System variables, create a new variable with the name as LM_LICENSE_FILE and value as <license.dat file path>.
5. Click OK and restart the Questa software.
   Alternatively, open a command prompt and run the following command to set up the LM_LICENSE_FILE environment variable:
   setx LM_LICENSE_FILE ;%LM_LICENSE_FILE%
   For example: setx LM_LICENSE_FILE C:\intelFPGA
   \license.dat;%LM_LICENSE_FILE%

On Linux System
Run one of the following commands in a command prompt window:
export LM_LICENSE_FILE=:$LM_LICENSE_FILE
setenv LM_LICENSE_FILE “”

Renewing the License
The software license expires 12 months after the date of purchase. To renew an expired license file, revisit the SSLC. You can renew a license only for the version that you purchased.

Related Information

• What’s New in Questa-Intel FPGA Edition
• Intel FPGA Software Installation and Licensing
• Common Licensing Q & A
• How to Get and Manage License
• Where to Get the License Daemon

Open the Example Design
The PLL_RAM example design includes Intel FPGA IP cores to demonstrate the basic simulation flow. Perform the following steps to open the design example:

1. Download and unzip the Quartus_Pro_PLL_RAM.zip design example.
2. Launch the Intel Quartus Prime Pro Edition software version 21.3.
3. To open the example design project, click File ➤ Open Project, select the pll_ram.qpf project file, and then click OK.

Figure 1. pll_ram Project in the Intel Quartus Prime Pro Edition

Specify EDA Tool Settings
Specify EDA tool settings to generate simulation files for supported simulators by performing the following steps:

1. In the Intel Quartus Prime software, click Assignments ➤ Settings ➤ EDA Tool Settings.
2. Under Simulation, select Questa Intel FPGA as the Tool name. Retain the default settings for Format for output netlist and Output directory.

Figure 2. EDA Tool Settings

Generate a Simulator Setup Script Template
Simulator setup scripts help you to simulate IP cores in your design. Follow these steps to generate the vendor-specific simulator setup script template for the IP modules in the example design. You can then customize this template for your specific simulation goals.

1. To compile the design, click Processing ➤ Start Compilation. The Messages window indicates when compilation is complete.
2. Click Tools ➤ Generate Simulator Setup Script for IP. Retain the default Output directory and Use relative paths whenever possible setting for the setup script file. The setup script template and two sub-folders mentor/ and comman/ generates in the directory that you specify.

Figure 3. Generate Simulator Setup Scripts IP Dialog Box

Create the Simulation Script
Create the simulation script to enable specific commands that simulate the IP cores in the project.

1. In a text editor, open the /Quartus_PRO_PLL_RAM/mentor/msim_setup.tcl file.

2. Create a new text file with the name mentor_example.do and save it in the /PLL_RAM/mentor/ directory.

3. In the msim_setup.tcl file, copy the section of code enclosed within the TOP-LEVEL TEMPLATE – BEGIN and TOP-LEVEL TEMPLATE – END comments, and then paste this code into the new mentor_example.do file.

4. In the mentor_example.do file, delete single pound (#) characters preceding the following highlighted lines to enable compilation commands:
   
   Figure 4. Uncomment Highlighted Simulation Commands in the Script

5. Replace the following lines in the mentor_example.do script:
   Table 1. Specify Values in the mentor_example.do Script Replace this Line| With this Line|
   ---|---|---
   set QSYS_SIMDIR