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CBlow's avatar
CBlow
Icon for Occasional Contributor rankOccasional Contributor
5 years ago
Solved

JAM/JBC file size increase from Quartus 16 to 20

Hello,

A 10M04SCE144I7N design compiled in Quartus 16.1 generates JAM and JBC files that are 178KB and 357KB respectively.

When the same design is compiled in Quartus 20.1, the JAM and JBC files are 291KB and 535KB respectively.

The JBC is used for updating the device configuration in the field, so the larger file does not fit into the microprocessor that does the programming.

If I take the POF generated by Quartus 20.1 and use the Quartus 16.1 programming tools to generate the JAM and JBC, these files are now 180KB and 357KB.


This is a fine work-around for now, but to stream-line the process it would be nice to use the Quartus 20.1 tools to generate all of the files.

Is there a setting needed for the 20.1 programmer to generate the smaller JAM and JBC files?

Thanks.

  • JohnT_Altera's avatar
    JohnT_Altera
    5 years ago

    Hi,


    You will need to use the command below to include the real-time ISP.


    quartus_cpf -c <name>.pof <name>.jam -o background_programming=on


8 Replies

  • JohnT_Altera's avatar
    JohnT_Altera
    Icon for Regular Contributor rankRegular Contributor
    5 years ago

    Hi,


    You will need to use the command below to include the real-time ISP.


    quartus_cpf -c <name>.pof <name>.jam -o background_programming=on


  • JohnT_Altera's avatar
    JohnT_Altera
    Icon for Regular Contributor rankRegular Contributor
    5 years ago

    Hi,


    Could you share with me the JAM file generated in Quartus 16.1 and 20.1?


    • CBlow's avatar
      CBlow
      Icon for Occasional Contributor rankOccasional Contributor
      5 years ago

      Hi John,

      I am unable to post the original files, so I created a test project consisting of an 8-bit counter.
      There are 3 files in the zip.

      testv16.jam, Compiled in 16.1, JAM size is 73 KB

      testv20.jam, Compiled in 20.1, JAM size is 185 KB

      testv20_v16.jam, Taking the POF from 20.1 and using the 16.1 programmer to create the JAM, JAM size is 73 KB.

      Thanks.

  • JohnT_Altera's avatar
    JohnT_Altera
    Icon for Regular Contributor rankRegular Contributor
    5 years ago

    Hi,


    From my investigation on the jam file generated, it looks like there is additional features added into the JAM file generated which causes the file to be bigger. May I know if you enable the real-time ISP when you are using Quartus 20.1 to generate the JAM file? The reason is that I do not observed this features enabled.



  • JohnT_Altera's avatar
    JohnT_Altera
    Icon for Regular Contributor rankRegular Contributor
    5 years ago

    Hi,


    Thanks for providing me the file. In order to have smaller size, you need to enable the Real-Time ISP. In Quartus 16.1, it is automatically enable which cause the size to be smaller than 20.1.


    The reason that the size is bigger when real-time ISP is not enabled is because that it will include programming the Max 10 before updating the flash while when you are using real-time ISP features, it is will directly programmed the flash without the need to program the Max 10 device.


    • CBlow's avatar
      CBlow
      Icon for Occasional Contributor rankOccasional Contributor
      5 years ago

      John,

      Thanks for the reply. I was able to create a smaller JAM file with the 20.1 programmer with the real-time ISP box checked.

      The goal is to make this scripted with command lines. With the real-time ISP box checked, I saved the 20.1 CDF and then ran this from the command line

      quartus_cpf -c v20_chain.cdf test20.jam

      The test20.jam is still large. The real-time ISP information was not included in the CDF when running command line.

      I was unable to find the parameter to make this work. how do I save the smaller JAM file from the command line?