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Altera_Forum's avatar
Altera_Forum
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13 years ago

Running Quartus on Mac without VM Software

I would like to run Quartus on a Mac without using VM Software? is this possible with the web edition. I am currently running OX 10.6.8 but could upgrade if needed.

Thanks.

7 Replies

  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    13 years ago

    Thanks very much! I was hoping that there was some hidden way to accomplish it that I just couldn't find.

  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    13 years ago

    --- Quote Start ---

    Possibly run linux under qemu?

    --- Quote End ---

    I'd run VirtualBox before trying Qemu - one less layer of emulation ...

    https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/downloads

    I haven't tried it under MAC OS, but it works well from both WinXP, Win7, and Linux hosts. The USB-Blaster can be captured by the virtual machine under both Linux and WinXP. I couldn't get it working under Win7, but it may have been a permissions issue. I suspect that since Linux works, MACs will work ok too.

    Cheers,

    Dave
  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    13 years ago

    Mac OSX is actually built on unix, and I can access a unix prompt quite easily. Quartus comes in an linux flavor. It just seems like I should be able to make it work without to many layers in-between.

    Meanwhile, I'm going to update my OS and my parallels. It will be slow, but it should at least work that way.
  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    13 years ago

    --- Quote Start ---

    Mac OSX is actually built on unix, and I can access a unix prompt quite easily. Quartus comes in an linux flavor.

    --- Quote End ---

    Technically its GNU/Linux, i.e., GNU as in "GNU is Not Unix" ... its the "Not Unix" that you're fighting with :)
  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    13 years ago

    The requirements for running Quartus under Linux are a bit more than a unix prompt. You need also a bunch of libraries. Most of them can be found for Macs (including X11) but would require to recompile the software anyway. AFAIK the BSDs are the only operating systems (other than Linux) that are able to run a Linux binary without recompiling. This isn't possible on Mac OS.

    If you want performance the best option is to install Windows or Linux in Bootcamp and boot on that OS instead of Mac OS. This is what I'm doing on my MacBook. The next best option is a virtual machine, using Parallels, VirtualBox, VMWare or QEmu. The main problem is that you'll have less memory for Quartus, and Quartus loooves memory ;)