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dns13's avatar
dns13
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5 years ago
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alftp components missing in altera_mf_components on Quartus 20.1

I've recently updated from 18.1 Lite to 20.1 Lite and now my build is failing as all altfp components are missing in the declaration file.

I haven't found anything about deprecation of this use. Do I need to compile this megafunctions by myself or can I define them in every file? Is there another workaround?

What's the recommended way to use those megafunctions? I like the use with a USE statement more than generating every megafunction, this way I have all informations I need in the corresponding *.vhd-file instead of an extra folder with compiled megafunctions I need to update and keep an eye of breaking things when multiple IPs are using the same compiled megafunction.

Thanks for your help

Jan

  • FvM's avatar
    FvM
    3 years ago

    Hello,

    I came across the same problem today and noticed that the question hasn't been clearly answered by Intel team.

    The answer seems quite obvious though. All altfp_xxx IP has been removed from the library since Quartus 19 but is still in the IP catalog for some devices, curiously not for all, e.g. MAX10. As stated in a different thread, it's expected that you use the new HLS based FP_FUNCTIONS Intel FPGA IP instead. It has additional features like freely selecting the pipeline level based on speed requirements.

    Regards
    Frank

20 Replies

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

    Hi Jan,


    I can reproduce the error here and I will file a case to our engineering team for investigation.


    Thanks

    Best regards,

    KhaiY


    • dns13's avatar
      dns13
      Icon for New Contributor rankNew Contributor
      5 years ago

      Hi KhaiY,

      thanks.

      Greetings

      Jan

    • dns13's avatar
      dns13
      Icon for New Contributor rankNew Contributor
      5 years ago

      Hi KhaiY,

      I've attached a component (and the used component "st_driver") that's failing compilation on 20.1 with "Error (10482): VHDL error at measure_trigger_time.vhd(75): object "altfp_div" is used but not declared". It worked completely fine with 18.1 as it is.

      When I check the library file under "<quartus install dir>/libraries/vhdl/altera_mf/altera_mf_components.vhd" all altfp_* declarations are missing - they are present in the 18.1 version of this file. I could do the component declaration in each file for my own, but I think that's not how it's supposed to be.

      Thanks
      Jan

      • dns13's avatar
        dns13
        Icon for New Contributor rankNew Contributor
        5 years ago

        The issue seems to lay deeper:

        • Just creating a new library with all the altfp_* component declarations from 18.1 failed with component not found
        • Then I tried to use the megafunction compiler to create the used megafunctions. This worked for altfp_div, but alftp_convert just creates an empty *.qip file with not even opening the MegaWizard, failed with "Error (14736): Error: Wizard "ALTFP_CONVERT" cannot be launched."
        • Reinstalling Quartus 20.1 did not help
  • KhaiChein_Y_Intel's avatar
    KhaiChein_Y_Intel
    Icon for Regular Contributor rankRegular Contributor
    5 years ago

    Hi,


    Could you share the design.qar that includes the Quartus project/settings file, qip/qsys, etc? To generate the QAR file, click on Project > Archive Project > Archive.


    Thanks.

    Best regards,

    KhaiY


    • dns13's avatar
      dns13
      Icon for New Contributor rankNew Contributor
      5 years ago

      Hi KhaiY,

      I've created a test project and archived it as my main project is kind of huge and includes internas.

      Thanks,

      Jan

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

    Hi Jan,


    I received the reply from the team, you may create altera_fp_function in version 18.1 and use that instance in version 20.1. In v18.1, a qip file is also generated which will list all the generated files you need to include in your v20.1 project.


    Thanks.

    Best regards,

    KhaiY


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

    Hi,

    We do not receive any response from you to the previous question/reply/answer that I have provided. This thread will be transitioned to community support. If you have a new question, feel free to open a new thread to get the support from Intel experts. Otherwise, the community users will continue to help you on this thread. Thank you

    Best regards,

    KhaiY


      • JHill1's avatar
        JHill1
        Icon for Occasional Contributor rankOccasional Contributor
        5 years ago

        My use case is that my VHDL component's port has a fixed fractional width generic which cascades to a generic passed to the alt_fpconvert VHDL component's port. So my complaint is that functionality that worked in the past, and is described in the 2020 version of the manual, no longer works, and we are wedged by Intel when trying to migrate our code base in-between versions. This generics passing down functionality isn't supported by the wizard, assuming of course that the wizard was even working in 20 and or 19, which it isn't.

        Furthermore, what is really frustrating is such problems with the FP library exist, and users are documenting them, but they continue to persist year after year.

    • TomMiddleton's avatar
      TomMiddleton
      Icon for New Contributor rankNew Contributor
      4 years ago

      Is there any resolution to this other than use the ones from 18.1? I've found I cannot even open the MegaWizard for the IP that won't upgrade (ALTFP_MULT and ALTFP_CONVERT) that bails out without notice only leaving an "iplauncher_debug.log" file with the line "Fatal Error: The file altfp_mult_info.xml does not exist or cannot be read" It isn't clear from your answers, is this just an Intel " is not going to fix" thing?

  • TSudo2's avatar
    TSudo2
    Icon for New Contributor rankNew Contributor
    4 years ago

    I have encountered this same problem. Also would like to know if there is any other solution expected other than install 18.1.

  • dns13's avatar
    dns13
    Icon for New Contributor rankNew Contributor
    3 years ago

    It's been two years. Still no version after 18.1 that is working as it should.

  • FvM's avatar
    FvM
    Icon for Super Contributor rankSuper Contributor
    3 years ago

    Hello,

    I came across the same problem today and noticed that the question hasn't been clearly answered by Intel team.

    The answer seems quite obvious though. All altfp_xxx IP has been removed from the library since Quartus 19 but is still in the IP catalog for some devices, curiously not for all, e.g. MAX10. As stated in a different thread, it's expected that you use the new HLS based FP_FUNCTIONS Intel FPGA IP instead. It has additional features like freely selecting the pipeline level based on speed requirements.

    Regards
    Frank

    • dns13's avatar
      dns13
      Icon for New Contributor rankNew Contributor
      3 years ago
      Wow. Thank you Frank!

      That was the answer I was looking for. So sad that wasn’t given from Intel itself.

      Where did you get the information that they were deprecated in favor of the HLS versions? I‘ve checked the update notes multiple times but haven’t stumbled upon that.

      Greetings
      Jan