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Altera_Forum's avatar
Altera_Forum
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9 years ago

MAX+plus II 8.0

Ok, first off, I know that version 8.0 of MAX+plus II, from 1997, is old, obsolete, etc. However, I'm desperately trying to recreate a build of some old VHDL code in an attempt to reproduce a binary for a FLEX 8000 series (EPF8820A) part. To get the exact same results from the late 90s, I need to recreate the exact same build environment, which includes this specific version of MAX+plus II. I have tried a later version (10.1), but it did not produce identical results.

Altera support has been able to provide me with a copy of the version 8.0 software, but apparently their systems can no longer produce a compatible license file for this version.

Is there anybody out there that is still using version 8.0 or otherwise still has a license to this version that might be able to help me out to execute a build? I know it's a longshot, but...

Thanks,

- Jay

4 Replies

  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    9 years ago

    Some FPGA tools use random numbers to make routing decisions. If this is the case with your MAX+ tool, you won't be able to reproduce the build without the random number seed used to create the build.

  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    9 years ago

    --- Quote Start ---

    Some FPGA tools use random numbers to make routing decisions. If this is the case with your MAX+ tool, you won't be able to reproduce the build without the random number seed used to create the build.

    --- Quote End ---

    Geez, I sure hope that's not the case...

    The Altera Configuration File for the build does not specify any sort of random number seed, so I'm assuming/hoping that this version of MAX+plus II doesn't use random numbers.

    I did the front end synthesis using Synopsys Synplify version 3.0, and it produced identical results to a build from 1997, so it doesn't appear to use random numbers.
  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
    Icon for Honored Contributor rankHonored Contributor
    9 years ago

    --- Quote Start ---

    Some FPGA tools use random numbers to make routing decisions. If this is the case with your MAX+ tool, you won't be able to reproduce the build without the random number seed used to create the build.

    --- Quote End ---

    This is true of all fit engines, they are fed a seed value to get different fit results. But this seed is based on source-code and manual seed value. Given the same tool version on the same platform with the same source code and same fit seed, you should get identical results (and this is a very important thing).
  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
    Icon for Honored Contributor rankHonored Contributor
    9 years ago

    --- Quote Start ---

    Geez, I sure hope that's not the case...

    The Altera Configuration File for the build does not specify any sort of random number seed, so I'm assuming/hoping that this version of MAX+plus II doesn't use random numbers.

    I did the front end synthesis using Synopsys Synplify version 3.0, and it produced identical results to a build from 1997, so it doesn't appear to use random numbers.

    --- Quote End ---

    Synth isnt random - its the fit that is random (based on a seed that you can control).