Project Delivery - Intel devices

Quick Start

The most Trenz Electronic FPGA Reference Designs are TCL-script based projects.

The "normal" Quartus project will be generated in the subfolder "/quartus/" and the additional software part will be generated in the subfolder "/software/" after executing scripts.

To create project do the following steps:

1. Execute "create_project_win.cmd" or "create_project_linux.sh"
2. Select your board in "Board selection" section
3. Click on "Create project" button

If you don't use predefined quartus installation path, open "design_basic_settings.cmd/.sh" with text editor and set correct quartus installation path.

See  Reference Design: Getting Started for more details.

Zip Project Delivery

Zip Name Description

Last supported Release

Currently limitations of functionality

• • • no current limitations of functionality

Directory structure

Command Files

create_project_win.cmd/create_project_linux.sh

Use to create project, open project or program device.

Create project

• Board selection

Select your board from listed modules. To find easier the correct board you can use the filter function. Click on "clear filter" button to reset the filter and show all available modules.

• Documentation

Some links to more information about the board, reference design and create_project_win.cmd/create_project_linux.sh gui.

• Messages

Messagebox shows different info, warning and error messages.

• Buttons
  • Create project→ start create project from source files for selected board in "Board selection".
  • Open project → open existing project in quartus prime gui.
  • Program device → opens "Program device" window:

Program device

• • • Select between "Program prebuilt file" (if available, download reference design with prebuilt files is required) and "Program other file" (select your own generated file via "Browse ..." button).
    • Buttons:
      • Browse ... → choose path to own generated programming file
      • Start program device → start program device with selected programming file
      • Open programmer GUI → open Quartus Programmer GUI
      • Cancel → Quit "Program device" window
  • Exit → Quit "Create Project" window

design_basic_settings.cmd/sh

Settings for the *.cmd files. Following settings are avaliable:

• Intel settings:
  
  • QUADIR: Set Intel installation path
    • default for quartus lite version: Win OS: C:/intelFPGA_lite - Linux OS: ~/intelFPGA_lite
    • default for quartus pro version: Win OS: C:/intelFPGA_pro - Linux OS: ~/intelFPGA_pro
  • QUARTUS_VERSION: Current Quartus Version (quartus lite version → 19.1 / quartus pro version → 19.4). Don't change quartus version.
    • Intel Software will be searched in:

    • QUARTUS (optional for project creation and programming): %QUADIR%/%QUARTUS_VERSION%/quartus/

    • SDK (optional for software projects and programming): %QUADIR%/%QUARTUS_VERSION%/nios2eds/

  • QUARTUS_EDITION:
    • quartus lite version: Lite
    • quartus pro version: Pro
• General Settings:
  • (optional) DO_NOT_CLOSE_SHELL: Shell do not closed after processing

Design Environment: Usage

Reference-Design: Getting Started

• Install "Quartus Prime Lite Edition Version 19.1" or "Quartus Prime Pro Edition Version 19.4" (depending on used FPGA: See https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/programmable/downloads/download-center.html)

Create project:

1. Run "create_project_win.cmd" or "create_project_linux.sh"
   • "desgin_basic_settings.cmd/sh" will be copied to basefolder and configured automatically.
2. select your Board in "Board selection" section.
3. click on "Create project" to generate project for selected board

Manual configuration of the design basic settings (Note: batch/bash files works only in the basefolder of the project, use "create_project_win.cmd"/"create_project_linux.sh" or copy manually)

•  Open “design_basic_settings.cmd/.sh” with a text-editor:
   Set correct quartus environment:
         Example for quartus lite edition:
             @set QUADIR=C:/intelFPGA_lite (example for Win OS)
             @set QUARTUS_VERSION=19.1
             @set QUARTUS_EDITION=Lite
         Example for quartus pro edition:
             @set QUADIR=C:/intelFPGA_pro (example for Win OS)
             @set QUARTUS_VERSION=19.4
             @set QUARTUS_EDITION=Pro
          Program settings are searched in:
             %QUADIR%/%QUARTUS_VERSION%/quartus/
             %QUADIR%/%QUARTUS_VERSION%/nios2eds/
          Example directory: C:/intelFPGA_pro/19.4/
          Attention: Scripts are supported only with predefined Quartus Version!

Programming FPGA or flash memory:

• General steps:
      1. Connect your Hardware-Modul to the PC via JTAG
      2. Open "create_project_win.cmd/create_project_linux.sh
      3. Click on "Program device" button → The "Program device" window opens.
• Program with prebuilt files: (download reference design with prebuilt files is required)
      4. Select "Program prebuilt file"
      5. Click on "Start program device" button
• Program with own generated files:
      6. Select "Program other file"
      7. Click on "Browse ..." to choose path to your own generated file (supported file types: *.jic, *.pof, *.sof)
      8. Click on "Start program device" button
• Program device via Quartus Programmer:
      9. Click on  "Open programmer GUI"
    10. Select from Programmer top menu: Edit → Hardware Setup, select "Arrow-USB-Blaster [USB0]" and close window
    11. Click on "Add File..." and choose correct programming file
    12. Enable "Program/Configure" checkbox and click on "Start" to program the device with the selected programming file

Hardware Design

Device list CSV Description

Device list csv file is used for TE-Scripts only.

SDC Conventions

• All *.sdc from <design_name>/source_files/quartus/ are load into the quartus project on project creation.

Advanced Usage

Attention not all features of the TE-Scripts are supported in the advanced usage!

User defined device list csv file

To modifiy current device csv list, make a copy of the original csv and rename with suffix "_mod.csv", ex.TEI0006_devices.csv as TEI0006_devices_mod.csv. Scripts use modified csv instead of the original file.

User defined Settings

ZIP ignore list:

Files which should not be added in the backup file can be defined in this file: "<design_name>/settings/zip_ignore_list.csv". This file will be loaded automatically on script initialisation.

mod list:

List with commands to modify source files during project creation. (<design_name>/settings/mod_list.csv)

Qsys presets file:

Predefined settings for Qsys IP Components (<design_name>/settings/presets_qsys.qprs)

HDL-Design

HDL files can be saved in the subfolder "<design_name>/hdl/". They will be loaded automatically on project creation. Available formats are *.vhd, *.v and *.sv.

Checklist / Troubleshoot

1. Are you using exactly the same Quartus version? If not then the scripts will not work, no need to try.
2. Are you using Quartus on Windows PC? Quartus works in Linux also, but the scripts are tested on Windows only.
3. Win OS only: Use short path name, OS allows only 256 characters in normal path.
4. Linux OS only: Use bash as shell and add access rights to bash files. Check with "ls /bin/sh". It should be display: /bin/sh -> bash. Access rights can be changed with "chmod"
5. Are space character on the project path? Somtimes TCL-Scripts can't handle this correctly. Remove spaces from project path.
6. Did you have the newest reference design build version? Maybe it's only a bug from a older version.
7. On project creation process old files will be deleted. Sometimes the access will be denied by os (synchronisiation problem) and the scripts canceled. Please try again. 
   
8. If nothing helps, send a mail to Trenz Electronic Support (support[at]trenz-electronic.de) with subject line "[TE-Reference Designs] ",  the complete zip-name from your reference design.

References

1. Intel Quartus Prime User Guide: Getting Started (UG-20129)
2. Intel Quartus Prime User Guide: Platform Designer (UG-20130)
3. Intel Quartus Prime User Guide: Design Compilation (UG-20132)
4. Intel Quartus Prime User Guide: Scripting (UG-20144)

Document Change History

To get content of older revision  got to "Change History"  of this page and select older revision number.