Why does Active Serial configuration for Intel Agilex® 7 devices fail when using Intel® Quartus® Prime Pro Edition Software v20.4.1?

Description

Due to a problem in the Intel® Quartus® Prime Pro Edition Software v20.4.1, you may see Active Serial (AS) configuration failure for Intel Agilex® 7 devices.

If you read sdm_config_status after a configuration failure as instructed in AN 936: Executing SDM Commands via JTAG Interface, you will see the following error message:

% sdm_config_status
 MSEL[2:0]      : 011 (AS (Normal POR))

 Configuration pin signals:
  nSTATUS        : 1
  nCONFIG        : 1
  CONF_DONE      : 0
  INIT_DONE      : 0
  CvP_DONE       : 0
  SEU_ERROR      : 0
  HPS_WARMRESET  : 0
  HPS_COLDRESET  : 0

 MSEL[2:0] Table:
  3'b000 AvST x32
  3'b101 AvST x16
  3'b110 AvST x8
  3'b001 AS (Fast POR)
  3'b011 AS (Normal POR)
  3'b111 JTAG only

 State          : 0xf004001c
 Error location : 0x00025e00

 Configuration fail!
  Major code: 0xF004
  Internal error, refer minor error code for detail.

  Minor code: 0x001C
  Portion of bitstream detected invalid.

Resolution

This problem has been fixed in the Intel® Quartus® Prime Pro Edition Software v21.1 and onwards.