Quartus II is NOT stable itself

I use the commercial edition of 7.1, and I too experience the occasional temporary freeze. I don't often get crashes though, except with specific functionality. (For example, trying to disable specific HDL message numbers in the Settings menu crashes Quartus for me every time.)

I can second your comment about the multi-threading, too. One particularly crazy thing I've noticed is that if I have nios2-terminal running then I sometimes have to exit it in order to start a new compile in Quartus, or else the compile doesn't proceed. Ridiculous!

In compilation process settings, change it back from 2 to 1 core used during the fitting,

that might solve the issue.

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In compilation process settings, change it back from 2 to 1 core used during the fitting,

that might solve the issue.

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Thanks for your hint:) But I do have only 1 core and that setting is always '1'. Altera's engineer told me to turn off 'HyperThreading' of my Pentium 4 CPU, I will try that, maybe the Quartus II is not compatible with that stuff:)

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I do have only 1 core and that [multiple-processor] setting is always '1'. Altera's engineer told me to turn off 'HyperThreading' of my Pentium 4 CPU, I will try that, maybe the Quartus II is not compatible with that stuff

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I've had hyper-threading enabled on my single-core Pentium 4 for several Quartus versions with no trouble. The Quartus handbook does sound like the official recommendation is not to use it (see end of handbook quote below), but I suspect the restriction is really only for when you set "Maximum processors allowed for parallel compilation" to a number greater than 1.

From the Quartus handbook, Volume 2, Section III, Chapter 8, under "Use Multiple Processors for Parallel Compilation":

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Do not consider processors with Intel Hyper-Threading to be more than one processor. If you have a single processor with Intel Hyper-Threading enabled, you should set the number of processors to one. Altera recommends that you do not use the Intel Hyper-Threading feature for Quartus II compilations.

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From web version v6.0 to v7.1, the software itself crashes over 10 times on my computer every day, usually during synthesis or simulation. That depress me much. The reason make me think it's not my computer's problem is the software seems not well multi-threaded during working, often makes computer freeze for a short while. Does anyone suffer the same problem as me?

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Does the software crash with an Internal Error or with a UAE message? Is it the Quartus UI application that is crashing or the backend compiler executables like the synthesis (qmap) or fitter (qfit) that is crashing. More details will help diagnose the problem.

- SD

Internal Error: Sub-system: AFC, File: /quartus/gcl/afc/afc_editor_template.cpp, Line: 978

Not enough memory to complete operation

Stack Trace:

0x7C9E : AFC_EDITOR_TEMPLATE::get_compile_short_menu + 0x3E (GCL_AFC)

End-trace

Quartus II Version 7.1 Build 156 04/30/2007 SJ Web Edition

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Above crash message is what I've got just now, when I pressed the 'start simulation' button. The funny thing is I'm using an apple keyboard with my Windows PC, so I don't know how to PrintScreen since there is no such a key. Just copied the error message for reference. Seem everything caused by memory leak...

Hi Borden,

We have seen this message also through Talkback from other users. This is caused by a bug in Quartus where Windows resource handles were not being freed after use. We have identified cases that would trigger this condition and have resolved them for Quartus II 7.2. Can you add which windows were open when the crash occurs e.g. the names of the editor windows, the different report windows etc? Can you verify if you have a waveform editor window open in the simulation report? You can send me email at sdatta@altera.com.

Thanks

- Subroto Datta

Altera Corp.

Hi Subroto,

I've had many other windows opened when crashing, some acrobat reader windows, some explorer windows, and another application of Quartus II. But I think those were not important, I got a same crash today, samely at waveform editor window, when I pressed simulation button, all gone, the whole Quartus II application window disappeared, with no crash message.

And check out what I've got just now, I'm in text editor, editing my code, when I selected some text and pressed ctrl-x, a crash window pop up immediately. The content of the message is:

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*** Fatal Error: Access Violation at 0X7C883FEC, Module: quartus.exe

0x83FEC : SetConsoleMaximumWindowSize + 0x4DAA (kernel32)

End-trace

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I invoked task manager, quartus.exe was still there, 92308K memory taken. So seem this is a different problem, doesn't like a memory leak...

Im finding this QuartusII absolutely nightmarish !! Sent bugs report and told the version Id loaded two days prior was replaced by next SPack which solved the problem of editing ports in symbol editor.... also no simple tutorials showing how I get bus ports onto blocks .... Im taking over a QII6 design and the tutorials all seem too advanced or something like do you always need symbol file ? full of marketing crap and no substance ...if I use a block and I/O tables only can I avoid using symbol files ?

Can anyone help ? ... How do I terminate lines/busses in a shematic bdf file ....IM using the same assignations ie Temp_q[7..0] both in and outside the block but the compiler says no ports exist !!! :confused: