Forum Discussion
New ContributorUniversity Program VWF Simulations in Quartus Prime Lite 21.1 vs Quartus II 13.x
Hello everyone,
I'm working on updating a university lab course from (old) Terasic DE1 boards and Quartus II 13.x to Terasic DE10-Lite boards and Quartus Prime Lite Edition 21.1.
While both software versions seem to be mostly identical, I can't get any simulations running. Everything else is working perfectly fine.
So far, the course has relied on the "University Program VWF Simulations" and the "Simulation Waveform Editor" for some very basic simulations. Is that no longer supported in Quartus 21.1?
In Quartus II there was an option for "Quartus II Simulator" in the simulation settings that needed to be selected, but I can't find anything comparable in Quartus Prime.
Since FPGAs are only one chapter of the entire course, we would like to keep it simple and therefore are hesitant to using the full version of Questa.
Where I'm currently stuck:
- Quartus Prime Lite Edition 21.1 installed (and already reinstalled)
- Extremely basic test project: Input (switch) -> NOT -> Output (LED)
- Shortest possible file path for that project (no spaces or other special characters in file path)
- "Questa - Intel FPGA Starter Edition 2021.2" is installed and linked to a local license
- "Simulation Settings" are set to Default
- Running the Functional/Timing Simulation leads to: "Error loading design"
Am I missing something?
Thank you all very much in advance!
Greetings from Germany,
NTA
16 Replies
Ash_R_AlteraRegular Contributor
Hi,
The -novopt option is being deprecated in recent Questasim versions. So, that cause the issue.
Regards
- sstrell
Super Contributor
Any idea how in the Questasim GUI to remove -novopt when compiling? I understand the change mentioned above for starting the simulation (vsim) but I still see -novopt when compiling (vlog) and get errors from it.
- Ash_R_Altera
Hi,
I see that the case already has an accepted solution. Do you need any further support on this?
Regards
NTAHello,
thanks for asking, but the issue could be resolved with the instructions provided by DrNickels.
I'm just curious how that bug has gone unnoticed by Intel for so long.
DrNickelsOccasional Contributor
It's in the Simulation/Simulation Settings window in the GUI.
- sstrell
No, I was talking about in Questasim.
- DrNickels
Ah. Sorry for misunderstanding. It is confusing that the simulator labelled "Simulation Waveform Editor" is called "vsim".
When I use a testbench in Quartus and call Questa (Intel FPGA Starter Edition - not sure if that's different from "Questasim") from there, I get the correct flags, so can't offer any help there.
- NTA
Just to add to the topic, as this piece of information might be useful to someone:
The Max10-FPGA is not supported for Timing Simulations (neither is the Cyclone V). However, when selecting any CycloneIV model the Timing Simulation does work perfectly fine.
- Ash_R_Altera
Hi @sstrell,
The IP generated simulation script offer 2 aliases: ld and ld_debug.
ld_debug has the -voptargs=+acc option to the vsim command. Once the script is sourced, you can choose to use the ld_debug alias to start elaboration.
Hope this helps.
Regards
- sstrell
I'm not talking about generated scripts. I'm talking about going to Questasim, setting the directory to the location of the design files, and compiling the files from the Compile menu.
- Ash_R_Altera
Hi,
I think older QuetaSim simulator had an option 'Enable Optimization' when you do 'Start Simulation'. But in newer version, the option has been removed. So, if someone wants to migrate from older versions to newer, they need to drop the option -novopt from vsim command.
Regards
- Ash_R_Altera
Hi,
As the queries has been answered, setting the case to closure. However, it will still be open for community members to comment.
Regards
