Altera newbie question

INteresting Question.

I am not sure what / where you got the .asm files from.

I am not sure what part type you are looking to design into, but I will give you a generic reply in the hopes that it will cover you needs. Ask more if this does not help you.

Assuming you are targeting an FPGA, you will start with either an HDL file (like VHDL or Verilog) or you might use just schematic based inputs.

This (or these) file(s) will then get processed by Quartus as input.

If not typing errors (syntax) then the tool will progress to give you a .sof file.

This file can be downloaded into the FPGA - it will only be there while the power is applied to the FPGA.

On power up, or if certain signals are toggled in a certain order, then you can make the FPGA get loaded from an external source (like a prom device).

This is where the .pof file comes in.

You tell the tools co convert the .sof file into a .pof file so that you can program the configuration device with it.

As to the .asm file to get to .hex file.

Is this a software file that makes an .asm output?

Do you have an embedded processor in the FPGA?

Is this the code for that processor?

There are processes for including that file into the .pof file (if needed).

You should do a lot of WEB reading on the altera WEB page and take some of the free online training classes to put all this together better.

I hope this helps.

Avatar

Avatar, thanks for the reply.

I am working on an existing project that would only require compiling the files to get the .pof file that's automatically generated to program the configuration device with it.

To start out, I downloaded the Quartus II 7.2 Web Edition, then opened the project file, which is the .qpf file. But the problem I'm facing now is everytime I opened file.qpf, I get a popped up message stating:

"do you want to overwrite the database for revision "c:/example/file.qpf" created by quartus ii version 5.1 build 216 03/06/2006 service pack 2 sj full version? the database format is incompatible with the current version of the quartus ii software. overwriting the database does not affect the design files or other source files, but removes all database files for the revision included in the project.

if a version-compatible database was created for this project then the import database dialog box can be used to import the database after the project is opened."

Is there a way to get around to that message? Because clicking on "Yes" will remove all the database files and therefore will create a different checksum, but clicking on "No" will not open the project.

I looked in the Quartus 7.1 help file index under-> "files, types in Quartus II software"

There is no mention of a .asm file. What is this .asm file?

There is also no mention of .asm in the convert programming files utility.

If all you have is a .asm file. I think a .pof file will have a different checksum than the .asm file even if it were compiled with Quartus II Version 5.1 Build 216 03/06/2006 Service Pack 2 SJ Full Version.