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"
3. Click on "Create project" button

For more details and manual configuration of design basic settings, see Reference Design - Getting Started.

Zip Project Delivery

Zip Name Description

Last supported Release

Currently limitations of functionality

• • • Quartus Prime Lite 19.1 for Windows: requires a patch
      
      • Reason: error message when generating any EMIF IP or Cyclone® V/Arria® V HPS IP
      • Workaround: See https://www.intel.com/content/altera-www/global/en_us/index/support/support-resources/knowledge-base/tools/2020/fatal--cannot-generate-ip-in-a-windows-evironment-.html
    • Quartus Prime Lite 20.1.1 for Windows:
      • Reason: Error: (11133): IP component  with file "<path to file>" upgrade failed
      • Workaround: Add "<ALIAS>GPIO Lite Intel FPGA IP v20.1</ALIAS>" to *.lst file in Quartus installation directory: e.g. C:\intelFPGA_lite\20.1\ip\altera\altera_gpio_lite\altera_gpio_lite_wizard.lst

Directory structure

Command Files

create_project_win.cmd/create_project_linux.sh

Use to create project, open project or program device.

'Create Project' GUI

• 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, schematics and create_project_win.cmd/create_project_linux.sh gui.

• Messages

Messagebox shows different info, warning and error messages.

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

• • • 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 quartus programmer → open Quartus Programmer GUI
      • Cancel → Quit "Program device" window

Design Environment - Usage

Reference Design - Getting Started

• Install "Quartus Prime Lite Edition Version 20.1.1" or "Quartus Prime Pro Edition Version 20.4" (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"
   • "<project folder>/settings/desgin_basic_settings.tcl" will be 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:

•  Open “<project folder>/settings/design_basic_settings.tcl” with a text editor:
   Set correct quartus environment:
         Example for quartus lite edition:
             QUARTUS_PATH_WIN=C:/intelFPGA_lite (quartus installation path for Win OS)
             QUARTUS_PATH_LINUX=~/intelFPGA_lite (quartus installation path for Linux OS)
             QUARTUS_VERSION=20.1
             QUARTUS_EDITION=Lite
         Example for quartus pro edition:
             QUARTUS_PATH_WIN=C:/intelFPGA_pro (quartus installation path for Win OS)
             QUARTUS_PATH_LINUX=~/intelFPGA_pro (quartus installation path for Linux OS)
             QUARTUS_VERSION=20.4
             QUARTUS_EDITION=Pro
          Software settings are searched in (e.g. for Win OS):
             %QUARTUS_PATH_WIN%/%QUARTUS_VERSION%/quartus/
             %QUARTUS_PATH_WIN%/%QUARTUS_VERSION%/nios2eds/
          Example directory: C:/intelFPGA_pro/20.4/
          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. Select correct board in "Board selection"
      4. 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, *.elf)
      8. Click on "Start program device" button
• Program device via Quartus Programmer:
      9. Click on  "Open quartus programmer"
    10. Select from Programmer top menu: Edit → Hardware Setup, select "Arrow-USB-Blaster *" 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 <project folder>/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: "<project folder>/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 (<project folder>/settings/mod_list.csv).

apps list:

List with software projects assigned to the correct quartus project and *.sopcinfo file (<project folder>/source_files/software/apps_list.csv).

Qsys preset files:

Predefined settings for Qsys IP Components (<project folder>/source_files/quartus/ip/presets/*.qprs). They will be copied to <project folder>/quartus/ip/presets folder on project creation.

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.