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Altera_Forum's avatar
Altera_Forum
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10 years ago

Cyclone V GX transceiver simulation model needs Arria V modules?

Using Quartus II v15.0, and ModelSim Starter 10.3d.

I am working on a new design, targeting a Cyclone V GX device. Before digging into the whole design, I generated a Cyclone V Transceiver Native PHY v15.0 entity, and I started to write a simulation test bench for it, mainly so I could learn how the module really works. I thought that I was able to compile all of the parts of the transceiver module in the expected way. But when tried to run the simulation, I got errors like the following:

ModelSim> vsim -gui work.gigabitxcvr_tb(testbench)

# vsim

# Start time: 11:11:33 on Jun 26,2015

# Loading std.standard

# Loading std.textio(body)

# Loading ieee.std_logic_1164(body)

# Loading ieee.numeric_std(body)

# Loading work.gigabitxcvr_tb(testbench)

# Loading work.gigabitxcvr(rtl)

# Loading sv_std.std

# Loading work.altera_xcvr_functions

# Loading work.altera_xcvr_native_av_functions_h

# Loading work.altera_xcvr_native_av_sv_unit

# Loading work.altera_xcvr_native_av

# Loading work.sv_reconfig_bundle_merger_sv_unit

# Loading work.sv_reconfig_bundle_merger

# Loading work.av_xcvr_h

# Loading work.av_xcvr_plls_sv_unit

# Loading work.av_xcvr_plls

# Loading work.av_xcvr_native_sv_unit

# Loading work.av_xcvr_native

# Loading work.av_pma

# Loading work.av_pcs

# Loading work.av_xcvr_avmm_sv_unit

# Loading work.av_xcvr_avmm

# Loading work.av_reconfig_bundle_to_xcvr

# ** Error: (vsim-3033) E:/Projects/AlteraTest/gigabitxcvr/av_xcvr_plls.sv(348): Instantiation of 'arriav_hssi_avmm_interface' failed. The design unit was not found.

#

# Region: /gigabitxcvr_tb/DUT/gigabitxcvr_inst/gen_native_inst/av_xcvr_native_insts[0]/gen_bonded_group_plls/gen_tx_plls/tx_plls/pll[0]/avmm

# Searched libraries:

# E:/Projects/AlteraTest/test/libraries/work

# Loading work.av_xcvr_avmm_csr

# ** Error: (vsim-3033) E:/Projects/AlteraTest/gigabitxcvr/av_xcvr_plls.sv(538): Instantiation of 'arriav_hssi_pma_cdr_refclk_select_mux' failed. The design unit was not found.

#

# Region: /gigabitxcvr_tb/DUT/gigabitxcvr_inst/gen_native_inst/av_xcvr_native_insts[0]/gen_bonded_group_plls/gen_tx_plls/tx_plls/pll[0]/pll/cmu_pll/pll_mux

# Searched libraries:

# E:/Projects/AlteraTest/test/libraries/work

# ** Error: (vsim-3033) E:/Projects/AlteraTest/gigabitxcvr/av_xcvr_plls.sv(643): Instantiation of 'arriav_channel_pll' failed. The design unit was not found.

#

# Region: /gigabitxcvr_tb/DUT/gigabitxcvr_inst/gen_native_inst/av_xcvr_native_insts[0]/gen_bonded_group_plls/gen_tx_plls/tx_plls/pll[0]/pll/cmu_pll

# Searched libraries:

# E:/Projects/AlteraTest/test/libraries/work

# Loading work.av_rx_pma

# Loading work.av_tx_pma

# Loading work.av_pcs_ch

# ** Error: (vsim-3033) E:/Projects/AlteraTest/gigabitxcvr/av_xcvr_avmm.sv(290): Instantiation of 'arriav_hssi_avmm_interface' failed. The design unit was not found.

#

# Region: /gigabitxcvr_tb/DUT/gigabitxcvr_inst/gen_native_inst/av_xcvr_native_insts[0]/gen_bonded_group_native/av_xcvr_native_inst/inst_av_xcvr_avmm/genblk1/avmm_interface_insts[0]/genblk1

# Searched libraries:

# E:/Projects/AlteraTest/test/libraries/work

# Error loading design

All of the errors point to missing Arria V design units. And I look in ModelSim's Library list and sure enough, the library arriav_hssi_ver is marked as (empty).

According to the documentation I can find, Arria V is supported on this version of ModelSim.

So, two questions:

1) Why does the Cyclone V model use an Arria V model (yeah, I know that the hardware in the FPGA is the same), and

2) Where can I find the missing Arria V models?

Thanks!

17 Replies

  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    Since they are trying to get you switch to Altera, I believe you have all the reasons to request them to expedite the resolution. By the way, from my experience with service request, you might want to constantly follow up to expedite response.

  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    --- Quote Start ---

    Since they are trying to get you switch to Altera, I believe you have all the reasons to request them to expedite the resolution. By the way, from my experience with service request, you might want to constantly follow up to expedite response.

    --- Quote End ---

    There was a response from the ticket waiting for me this morning, asking the usual, "can you send the design?" and "What is the error message?" even though I included the error message in the initial service request. The tech support person now has a complete test project that produces the error, along with enough supporting information to hopefully give me a good answer.

    If the answer is, "You need to buy the paid-for tools, even though you are only using Cyclone V," that's an answer, even if it goes against all of the public documentation.
  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    Hi Bassman59,

    Just wonder what does they refer to with "paid-for-tools"? As I understand it, Modelsim Altera starter edition is a free version. I have been using Quartus II subscription version and Modelsim Altera starter edition but seems not get into similar issue with Cyclone V. By the way, just wonder if you can give it a try with older Quartus II version ie 13.1 which is running with Megawizard to see if it work?
  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
    Icon for Honored Contributor rankHonored Contributor

    --- Quote Start ---

    Hi Bassman59,

    Just wonder what does they refer to with "paid-for-tools"? As I understand it, Modelsim Altera starter edition is a free version. I have been using Quartus II subscription version and Modelsim Altera starter edition but seems not get into similar issue with Cyclone V. By the way, just wonder if you can give it a try with older Quartus II version ie 13.1 which is running with Megawizard to see if it work?

    --- Quote End ---

    "paid-for" tools == the subscription version of Quartus II which supports all of the devices. The free version doesn't support the Arria V device (among other things).

    The docs say that ModelSim AE Starter supports all of the devices but is castrated. The paid-for version of ModelSim AE is faster.
  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    Seems like they would need further clarification on the web, document or somewhere stating that to be able to simulate with Cyclone V in Modelsim Altera you would need the subscription version of Quartus. The existing docs seems to cause confusion here.

  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
    Icon for Honored Contributor rankHonored Contributor

    --- Quote Start ---

    Seems like they would need further clarification on the web, document or somewhere stating that to be able to simulate with Cyclone V in Modelsim Altera you would need the subscription version of Quartus. The existing docs seems to cause confusion here.

    --- Quote End ---

    That's certainly possible. I am still waiting for both the Altera tech support person to work through my case, and I'm still ****ed off that the FAE hasn't gotten back to me at all.
  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
    Icon for Honored Contributor rankHonored Contributor

    An update ... Altera support said, "we ran the script and it was fine ... " and it turns out that that is a true statement. The msim_setup.tcl script adds a "com" command to ModelSim, which compiles the model, and an "elab" command, which elaborates the design (runs the vsim command). And then you can run the simulation. But this is pointless because it doesn't run a test bench.

    But I have worked out a solution. I started with the list of files in plain_files.txt. Rather than try to compile them all into some other library, I just added them all to a ModelSim project, in the order of compilation, and they get analyzed into the work library. Then I added the source that instantiates the core, and finally the test bench source. All of it compiled fine.

    Running vsim by itself isn't sufficient; while a lot of libraries are shown in the library page, they're invisible to the design unless you explicitly call them out on the vsim command line. Conveniently, though, you can copy that command line from msim_setup.tcl at the elab command. I created a ModelSim simulation configuration which calls out all of those libraries. And that all works.

    I suppose it's because it's all SystemVerilog, which doesn't have VHDL's libraries concept. If it was all VHDL, all of the models for the transceiver could be analyzed into a library called xcvr, and maybe create a package with the component declarations for them all (and analyze that package source into the library), and in your test bench, you use the library and package in the usual way and instantiate the components in the package in the usual way.

    anyways, what a pain.