Finish Your Designs Faster with Quartus II Software Version 8.1
As you face larger designs with more complexity due in the same amount of development time or, in some cases, even less time, you can rely on Quartus® II software to help you finish your FPGA designs faster. Quartus II software enables you to close timing quicker, close power faster and shorten development time with industry-leading productivity features.
Version 8.1 delivers new and enhanced tools to further increase your productivity and reaffirms Quartus II software as #1 in performance and productivity for CPLD, FPGA and HardCopy® ASIC designs.
Industry’s Fastest Compile Times
Quartus II software version 8.1 continues to deliver the industry’s fastest compile times, three times faster than the nearest competitor. Instead of waiting for overnight compiles, you can complete multiple design iterations in a day. With version 8.1, you get:
- Advanced place and route algorithms
- Support for multiprocessors resulting in, on average, 20 percent faster compile times
- Incremental compile support for an additional compile time reduction of up to 70 percent
Faster Timing and Power Closure
As FPGA designs continue to demand higher performance and lower power, you can rely on these Quartus II software features to help you close timing quicker and meet your power budgets.
Physical Synthesis
Physical synthesis increases the performance of your design by performing synthesis with placement and timing in consideration. Version 8.1 delivers an enhanced physical synthesis feature, enabling you to improve the performance of specific timing critical blocks in 20 percent less time than the previous version, for faster timing closure.
Incremental Compile
Time spent closing timing usually pertains to one or two critical blocks of your design. The Incremental compile feature allows you make changes and compile just the critical blocks until timing is closed. Once the critical blocks meet timing, incremental compile can preserve the performance as other parts of your design may change. This methodology allows you to reduce your compilation times by up to 70 percent compared to a flat compile.
TimeQuest and SDC Support
Proper timing constraints and detailed reports are imperative in understanding your critical paths and meeting timing. TimeQuest is an ASIC-strength timing analyzer providing you with many different customizable reports for critical path analysis and support for Synopsys Design Constraints (SDC). SDC is an industry standard timing constraint format that allows you to create accurate timing constraints on your design, including complex clocking schemes and source synchronous data interfaces, for faster timing closure. New in version 8.1 are SDC templates to guide and accelerate your timing constraint creation. For more detailed information on these SDC templates, refer to the Quartus II TimeQuest Timing Analyzer Cookbook manual (PDF).
PowerPlay Power Technology
To ensure your design’s optimal power consumption, power analysis is performed throughout the different design stages. Quartus II software includes PowerPlay power technology, enabling you to perform accurate power analysis throughout the FPGA development, and automatic power optimization to lower your design’s power consumption and meet your power budget.
Faster Design Development
As more functionality gets added to FPGA designs with limited time for development, you want to maximize design reuse and minimize integration design work. Quartus II software does exactly that, so you can focus your efforts in value-add design blocks.
Incremental Compile
In addition to the faster compile times, mentioned above, the incremental compilation feature allows you to package your custom logic for design re-use. With version 8.1, you can treat your QXP partition file like an intellectual property (IP) design file and add the QXP file to your project as you would with any other source file. Partitioning your design is now easier in version 8.1 with the new auto partitioning feature added to the design partition planner. OpenCore plus is also supported for designs with evaluation IP blocks in a bottom-up design flow.
Quartus II Integrated Synthesis
Designs with gated clocks are not ideal for the FPGA architecture and historically must be manually modified. With version 8.1, Quartus II integrated synthesis automatically converts gated clocks to functionally equivalent logic supported by the FPGA architecture. Also included with version 8.1 is improved SystemVerilog support.
SOPC Builder Tool
The system development tool, SOPC Builder, enables you to reduce your development time by weeks by automatically integrating your design and IP blocks together.
- Design at a higher level of abstraction by designing at a block level
- Mix and match your custom blocks with SOPC Builder-ready IP blocks to create your system
- Get automatic integration and HDL generation of your system
- Receive support for IP reuse of your custom blocks and IP
In version 8.1, HDL templates are generated to accelerate the creation of your custom blocks, and a new Avalon® memory-mapped DDR memory half-rate bridge is available for low latency access for DDR SDRAMs.
Faster On-Chip Debug
On-chip debug can be very frustrating when you don’t have the right tools. Quartus II software offers many on-chip debug tools to help you efficiently debug your design on-chip.
SignalTap II Embedded Logic Analyzer
SignalTap® II allows you to debug your design in your FPGA in real time by tapping your design nodes, storing the data in memory and viewing the results in the SignalTap II waveform viewer. New in version 8.1 is the memory qualifier feature for added control of when data is sampled into memory. This feature allows you to optimize the available on-chip memory usage and display so you can debug your design faster.
JTAG Chain Debug
The new JTAG chain debug tool allows you to quickly bring your board up by:
- Representing the JTAG chain graphically
- Identifying JTAG chain and validity
- Testing JTAG chain programming failures
- Stepping through the TAP controller to debug chain
Expanded Device Support
Version 8.1 expands Stratix® IV FPGA support with:
- Added Stratix IV GX pin-outs
- Vertical migration support for Stratix IV GX
- Support for new -2 speed grade for low-cost packages
- Support for
- 8.5 Gbps transceiver support (6.5 Gbps in -3 speed grade)
- 1.6Gbps LVDS
- 400MHz DDR
- Added Transceiver timing model support
Version 8.1 also introduces the first companion support for HardCopy IV E with HC4E62 and EP4SE530 for Stratix IV prototyping.
Additional Features
- New operating system support, including Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 and CentOS 4/5 (32-bit/64-bit)
- For added control and flexibility, the enhanced task window allows user-defined development flows
- Enhanced third-party simulation interface supports automatic compilation of library files for faster simulation setup
- New pin-out advisor to guide pin-out creation and interface with third-party board tools
- New support for Real Intent Incorporated’s Meridian clock domain crossing tool provides a solution to address clock domain crossing verification
- New and enhanced IP cores and megafunctions in digital signal processing (DSP), memory and protocols accelerates development
Getting started
Evaluate or upgrade your software even faster with version 8.1 as both the Quartus II Web Edition software and the ModelSim®-Altera Web Edition simulation tool no longer require a license file. Quartus II Subscription Edition software includes a free 30-day trial and will require a license after the 30-day trial period. Follow these three steps to get started:
- Download Quartus II software
- Install Quartus II software
- Start evaluation/design
Free Online Trainings
Pricing and Availability
Buy Quartus II Software, Get Nios II Processor Free ($495 value)—Limited Time Offer
Purchase Quartus II Subscription Edition software today and get a full year license for the Nios II soft processor, the most widely used soft core processor. Learn more about this limited time offer.
Both the Subscription Edition and the free Web Edition of Quartus II software version 8.1 are now available for download. The Subscription Edition is also available in DVD format by request. Altera’s software subscription program simplifies obtaining Altera® design software by consolidating software products and maintenance charges into one annual subscription payment. Subscribers receive Quartus II software, the ModelSim-Altera Edition and a full license to the IP Base Suite, which includes 11 of Altera’s most popular IP (DSP and memory) cores. The annual software subscription is $2,495 for a node-locked PC license and is available for purchase at Altera's eStore.
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