Why does MAX® 10 FPGA PFL flash_nreset behave like an open-drain output when the Fitter report shows Open Drain = No?
Description In Quartus® Prime Standard Edition Software version 21.1, the flash_nreset output may appear to behave as an open-drain signal even when the Quartus Fitter report shows Open Drain = No for design targeting MAX® 10 FPGA using the Parallel Flash Loader (PFL) IP. When the PFL option Set flash bus pins to tri-state when not in use is enabled, the flash_nreset signal is driven low when asserted and placed in high impedance (Z) when de-asserted. In this condition, an external pull-up is required for the pin to reach a logic-high level. The Fitter report can still show Open Drain = No because it is reporting whether the dedicated open-drain hardware feature is used, not whether the resulting pin behavior is electrically equivalent to open-drain operation. Resolution This is expected behavior and is not a Quartus or PFL defect. The apparent discrepancy is caused by interpreting the Fitter report's Open Drain field as a description of the pin's logical/electrical behavior. The field indicates whether the dedicated open-drain hardware feature is used. It does not by itself indicate whether the RTL creates a low/high-impedance output that behaves similarly to open-drain operation.Why does the LTPI_PLL_LOCKED signal of the MAX® 10 LVDS Tunneling Protocol and Interface (LTPI) IP not behave as expected in Quartus® Prime Standard Edition Design Software Version 25.1 and earlier?
Description When using Quartus® Prime Standard Edition Design Software Version 25.1 or an earlier release, the LTPI_PLL_LOCKED signal of the MAX® 10 LVDS Tunneling Protocol and Interface (LTPI) IP may fail to assert even when the internal PLL has successfully achieved lock. Resolution This issue has been fixed in Quartus® Prime Standard Edition Design Software Version 26.1. As a workaround for earlier versions, do not rely on the LTPI_PLL_LOCKED signal to determine the PLL lock status. Instead, monitor the internal signal m10_pll_top_inst_locked, which accurately reflects the lock status of the internal PLL.Why does the SystemConsole.refreshMasters DSP Builder function fail?
Description When using the SystemConsole.refreshMasters DSP Builder function in the Quartus® Prime Pro Edition version 26.1.1 and above, you may see the following error: Unable to resolve the name 'com.altera.systemconsole.matlabapi.SystemConsoleLink' This error occurs because the Java version used by MATLAB is incompatible with com.altera.systemconsole.matlabapi.SystemConsoleLink. For DSP Builder version 26.1.1 and later, MATLAB must use Java version 11 or later for SystemConsole.refreshMasters to run successfully. Resolution You can change MATLAB's Java version using either the jenv MATLAB function or the matlab_jenv executable. For information on how to use jenv and matlab_jenv, refer to the MATLAB documentation.Error: (vlog-7) Failed to open design unit file
Description Due to simulation models not being installed along with the Quartus ® Prime Pro Edition Software, an error such as: Error: (vlog-7) Failed to open design unit file "C:/altera_pro/26.1.1/quartus/eda/sim_lib/220model.v" in read mode may occur during simulation. The root cause of missing files is that “EDA libraries” are not installed properly during installation of the Quartus ® Prime Pro Edition Software. Resolution To fix this problem, make sure “EDA Libraries” has been checked and installed properly during installation of the Quartus ® Prime Pro Edition Software, as shown in the screenshot below.Why can’t I open the Early Power Estimator (EPE) tool in the latest version of Microsoft* Excel?
Description Due to the legacy design of the Early Power Estimator (EPE) worksheets, which include VBA macros, ActiveX components, and embedded DLL files, errors may occur when opening the Excel file on newer Windows platforms or when using Microsoft* Office 365, in both 32-bit and 64-bit versions. When the spreadsheet is opened, several actions occur in the background. Excel extracts the embedded DLLc files to the user's %TEMP% directory. A script then decompresses the DLLc files into standard DLL files. The script subsequently loads and executes the DLL files, which is used by the Excel macros. Why does this issue occur? To extract and execute the required DLL files, the Excel macros rely on a set of commands provided by Microsoft .NET and Microsoft Visual C++ runtime libraries, depending on the specific version of the Excel worksheet. In newer versions of Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Office 365, these runtime components are no longer bundled together by default, and some legacy functions used by older scripts have been deprecated or replaced with newer implementations. As a result, scripts designed for earlier environments may fail when attempting to call these functions. Note: In some systems, some of these are already installed automatically by other 3rd party software tools during installation. Additionally, the legacy script design does not support symbolic linking or modern handling of the user's %TEMP% directory, which can cause issues when extracting and accessing temporary files. Modern systems also enforce stricter security controls, including: ActiveX restrictions in newer versions of Microsoft Excel Trust Center policies that block code execution from untrusted locations Operating system security policies in Microsoft Windows that may prevent DLL execution from the %TEMP% directory if such restrictions are enabled As a result, if any of these conditions are triggered, users may encounter errors such as “Unable to find or load DLL files.” For example, errors may appear related to the zlib.dll file (the 32-bit or 64-bit version used depends on the installed Excel architecture). Resolution To workaround this issue PART A: Unblocking the Excel and Enable Macros/ActiveX 1. Unblock the Excel File • Right-click the EPE Excel file → Properties → Check Unblock under Security. • Click Apply → OK. 2. Enable Macros and ActiveX • Open Excel → File → Options → Trust Center → Trust Center Settings: Enable Macros. Enable ActiveX controls. Leave other settings as default (Safe Mode can remain enabled or disabled). 3. Check whether you can now open the EPE excel sheet. Else proceed to PART B. PART B: Installing the necessary Microsoft .NET and Visual C++ runtime libraries. Microsoft .NET installation Go to your Installed apps settings and find for .NET. It is recommended to have both .NET Runtime and ASP .NET installed in your system. If you already have a version installed on your machine then proceed to the next step( you only require 1 version each), otherwise refer to this location to download Download .NET 8.0 (Linux, macOS, and Windows) | .NET Example: Microsoft Visual C++ Installation As different EPE Excel sheet relies on specific Visual C++ version, you will need to install multiple versions of Visual C++ for both 32bit and 64bit. This is because even though Excel is running on 64bit, existing scripting might have dependency on 32bit functions as well. Recommendation to install C++ version for both 32 bit and 64 bit as below Latest Supported Visual C++ Redistributable Downloads Visual Studio 2017-2026 Visual Studio 2015 (in older Microsoft release, it might show as C++ V14 or 2015-2022 version) Visual Studio 2013 Visual Studio 2012 Example After installing both 32 bit and 64 bit, do restart the system and then try launching the EPE excel sheet again. In some rare occurrences, you might need to install Visual Studio C++ 2010 , Visual Studio C++ 2008 and Visual Studio C++ 2005. Do refer to PART C first as the issue might not be due to Visual C++ but symbolic link. PART C: Symbolic Link issue workaround (optional) If installing the .NET and Visual C++ runtime libraries still does not help in resolving the error opening EPE Excel, you should check whether your %TEMP% file folder is the same as what reported in the error when opening the EPE excel sheet. If the folder path are different between %TEMP% and the path reported by Excel sheet, it means that they are using symbolic link folder. In this case user should copy the .dll files generated out from the %TEMP% when they opened the excel sheet and copy it over to the Windows SySWoW folder (%windir%\SysWOW64). To access your %TEMP% folder , just type %TEMP% into your explorer and it will open your folder location (%TEMP% is set in windows environment variables) From the %TEMP% folder, there are multiple *epe* DLL files if you open different EPE excel sheets. Copy all of these .DLL files into your Windows SysWOW64 folder and try launching the EPE excel sheet again. Example, if using Cyclone® V EPE excel sheet, these are the 4 files required in red box in %TEMP% to be copied over NOTE 1: The SysWOW64 folder is selected because it is part of Windows’ default search locations when required DLL files cannot be found. Alternatively, you can add a custom directory to the Windows Environment Variables (PATH) so that Windows will also search that folder when looking for the DLL files. NOTE 2: Adding the %TEMP% folder into the system environment variables will not have any effect as latest Microsoft Windows have blocked the DLL searching mechanism to prevent search %TEMP% folder as part of the security to prevent remote execution from DLL. Additional Information If all fails, alternatively install Process Monitor from Microsoft to analyze the DLL failure/error 1. Download Process Monitor from this location Process Monitor - Sysinternals 2. Close all excel sheets that is open in Windows. 3. Launch the Process Monitor , then select Filter. Set to Process Name and EXCEL.exe and click Add. 4. After adding the filter, ensure that capturing is started 5. Then open any of the EPE excel file,and wait till you get the DLL (eg. epe_zlib_32bit.dll) error then press pause on the Process Monitor. 6. Then use Find and search for the dll error stated in the excel(eg. epe_zlib_32bit.dll) It will give you a list of things, but important is to check the details on createfile, open, close , query, those are the functions that are in the zlib dll file. Example Good case scenario where no error occurred. Fail case scenario where Windows unable to locate the DLL (due to symbolic link issue)Why can’t I open the Early Power Estimator (EPE) tool in the latest version of Microsoft* Excel?
Description There is a compatibility issue with the current EPE tools with the latest update from Microsoft* on the Excel version 2505 and later. The update from Microsoft causes the EPE tools to stop working. Resolution There is no plan to fix this. Users need to use the Excel version before version 2505 for the EPE tools to work. There is a workaround if the user needs to use the latest Excel version, please contact Altera support and quote this ID #15018720346Why does Nios® V/g experience data corruption when using DTCM?
Description Due to a problem in Quartus® Prime software, data corruption may occur when running a Nios® V/g processor application that interacts with a Tightly-Coupled Memory (TCM). This happens because of a RTL bug in the load-store unit. This problem is affecting Nios® V/g processor in, Quartus® Prime Pro Edition release 25.3.1 and earlier Quartus® Prime Standard Edition release 25.1 and earlier When Nios® V/g processor executes a non-TCM load (i.e. Load from On-Chip Memory or memory-mapped CSR) followed by a Data TCM load, the latter corrupts the former. This causes the non-TCM load to receive incorrect load data. For example, lw rd1,0(non-TCM) lw rd2,0(TCM) Expectation Actual Failure rd1 = load data from address “non-TCM” rd1 = load data from address “TCM” rd2 = load data from address “TCM“ rd2 = load data from address “TCM“ Resolution This problem is fixed in Quartus® Prime Pro Edition 26.1 and is scheduled to be resolved in a future Quartus® Prime Standard Edition release. Additional Information A patch is available to fix this problem. Quartus® Prime Standard Edition Software v25.1 Patch 0.01 Please contact Altera Support for additional support.Why does the Low Latency 40G Ethernet IP drop non-PTP packets when PTP residence-time update is enabled?
Description Due to a problem in the Quartus® Standard Edition software version 21.1, you may see the Low Latency 40G Ethernet IP may drop large non-PTP packets when the tx_etstamp_ins_ctrl_residence_time_update (PTP residence-time update) is asserted. This problem is typically observed with jumbo frames of approximately 3000 bytes or larger. The affected packets may be counted at the RX interface but may not appear at the TX output. PTP packets themselves may continue to transmit correctly. This problem is not observed when tx_etstamp_ins_ctrl_residence_time_update (PTP residence-time update) is kept deasserted. Resolution A patch (21.1std patch 0.16std) is available to fix this problem for the Quartus Standard Edition Software version 21.1. To request the patch, contact your local Altera support representative. This problem is resolved in the Quartus Prime Pro Edition Software 26.1. Altera recommends migrating to the latest Quartus Prime Pro Edition Software to address this problem.
Error: TBBmalloc: skip allocation functions replacement in ucrtbase.dll: unknown prologue for function _msize
Description Due to a problem in the Quartus® Prime Standard Edition Software version 25.1 or earlier, you might see this error message when generating PLL IP on Windows* 11 Operating System. The IP generation might complete successfully even though this error message is reported. Resolution To work around this problem, follow these steps: Go to This PC, right-click, and select Properties. Click Advanced System Setting. In the Advanced tab, select Environment Variable. Under System variables, create a new variable with the name TBB_MALLOC_DISABLE_REPLACEMENT and value as 1. Click OK and restart the Quartus® Prime Software. The workaround above does not work for the Quartus® Prime Standard Edition Software version 22.1std.2 or earlier. A patch is available to fix this problem for the Quartus® Prime Standard Edition Software version 22.1std.2. The environment variable is still required to prevent the TBBmalloc message from appearing. Download and install patch 2.02 below: Patch 2.02 for Windows (.exe) Readme for patch 2.02 (.txt) This problem is not scheduled to be fixed in the Quartus® Prime Standard Edition Software.How to mitigate the security vulnerability in the Nios® II Command Shell utility?
Description Due to a problem in the Quartus ® Prime Standard and Lite Edition Software version 19.1 through 24.1, the Nios® II Command Shell utility included in the Quartus ® Prime Software for Windows* is vulnerable to a Current Working Directory (CWD) planting attack. The Linux* versions are not affected. Resolution To work around this problem, replace the “Nios II Command Shell.bat” Windows Batch File located in the <drive>:\<edition>\<version number>\nios2eds\, with the attached file below. This problem is fixed beginning with the Quartus® Prime Standard and Lite Edition Software version 25.1.
