Quartus Prime logo image

Development Software

Quartus® Prime Design Software

Design, compile, and debug Altera FPGAs with Quartus Prime. Use synthesis, timing analysis, and board debug tools to turn RTL into working hardware.

Overview

A powerful, integrated design environment built to scale with your FPGA designs. From design entry and synthesis to optimization, verification, and simulation, Quartus Prime supports every step of development—enabling advanced performance on devices with millions of logic elements.

What's New in Quartus Prime Pro Design Software v26.3

Visual Designer Studio

  • Import Platform Designer systems containing generic components.  
  • Import parameterized RTL for more flexible design reuse.  
  • Cross-probe between VDS and other Quartus applications.  
  • Expanded support for Arria 10, Cyclone 10 GX, and Stratix 10.  
  • Clock/reset fanout simplifies logical hierarchies without additional bridges.  
  • Improved separation of source and generated files for revision-control workflows.  
  • Board awareness (Beta): Create and use board packages within VDS.  

QuartusIQ AI Expert Companion

  • Integrated AI Expert Companion available in the Quartus GUI
    • Bring your own API Key for most LLMs
  • FPGA knowledge and design guidance
    • Documentation search and design-closure suggestions help engineers find relevant information.
  • Project-aware assistance 
    • Project summaries provide context for questions and recommendations.
  • MCP integration  
    • Connect QuartusIQ expertise to external AI workflows.  
  • Programming assistance   
    • Analyze and convert programming files, discover hardware, and program devices through JTAG.
  • Configuration and debug assistance   
    • Issue SDM commands, check QSPI compatibility, and generate RSU images.  

System-Level Debug

  • Node Finder: Keep the top-level entity visible while navigating the hierarchy.  
  • Node Finder: Single-click hierarchy navigation and search results beside the hierarchy tree.  

Power & Thermal Analyzer

  • Tcl scripting and example scripts for repeatable analysis workflows.   
    • Bulk editing
    • Design flattening
    • Intermediate-node resource utilization
    • EMIF placement
  • Device-aware resource filtering and controls prevent invalid actions.  
  • Improved device-part selection, graphical displays, and numeric alignment.  
  • Common power/resource reports available in the Report Database.  
  • HPS modeled as a resource rather than a global setting.  

Nios V & Embedded Software

  • Agilex 27 HPS Simics Simulator support.
  • Agilex 5 E-Series FreeRTOS updates including A76/SMP
  • Zephyr HPS and driver support for Agilex 5 E-Series.  
  • Updated Agilex 5 E-Series bare-metal library and new bare-metal examples.  
  • Linux + FreeRTOS heterogeneous AMP example using Bao static partitioning.  
  • Cache-coherent accelerator examples for Linux and FreeRTOS.  
  • Agilex 5 E-Series Ubuntu baseline and Docker Linux examples.  
  • Nios V TSE examples with FreeRTOS TCP/IP and web servers for Agilex 3 and Agilex 5.  
  • Soft-processor debug-module improvements and Nios V/c debug support.  

Device Support

  • Expanded Agilex 5 E-Series device enablement  
  • Expanded Agilex 5 D-Series device and temperature-grade support

What's New in FPGA AI Suite Version 26.3

Spatial Features (Beta)

  • Spatial compiler and developer APIs for building CNN and transformer models
  • Spatial example designs: ResNet-8, Qwen 3.5, Majika, GPT-Neo
  • Configurable external memory interface (EMIF) connectivity in example designs 

Non-Spatial Features

  • New Altera Model Zoo and reshape-operation support
  • Tighter integration with Altera Video and Vision Processing, wider video data paths and AXI-streaming
  • SoC and x86 performance profiling
  • VDS examples and Agilex 3 M2M production-quality enablement 

What's New for IP and DSP in Quartus Version 26.3

Interconnect IP

  • AXI-Stream to Avalon-ST adapter IP simplifies streaming-interface integration
  • APB enhancements add PPROT signals and bridgesToMaster support
  • AXI-ST SUPPRESS control holds crossbar arbitration  

DSP Builder

  • CNN layers: convolution, pooling, and residual connections
  • Expanded ML activation-function support
  • AI Tensor DSP support, channel folding, and batching
  • Gearbox FIFO and credit-based backpressure
  • Enhanced network import, quantization, and automatic sizing
  • Fanout optimization, batch-normalization fusion, and per-output weight scaling
  • New ML application and learning demos
  • Agentic model creation, updates, and verification via MATLAB/Simulink MCP 
  • Pro Edition

    Quartus Prime

    Advanced design flow, block-based design, Interface Planner, partial reconfiguration, and high-speed transceiver support

  • Standard Edition

    Quartus Prime

    Broad legacy support, Platform Designer, partial reconfiguration, and core timing/power tools

  • Lite Edition

    Quartus Prime

    Free access, essential design tools, basic compile flow, Signal Tap, and starter simulation

Features

Platform Designer

Platform Designer is a system integration tool in the Quartus Prime Software that automatically generates interconnect logic to connect intellectual property (IP) functions and subsystems, saving significant time and effort in the FPGA design process.

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Block-Based Design

Design, implement, and verify core or periphery blocks once, and then reuse those blocks multiple times across different projects that use the same device.

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Partial Reconfiguration

Reconfigure a portion of the FPGA dynamically while the remaining FPGA design continues to function.

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Demo Video

Visual Designer Studio

Discover how Visual Designer Studio streamlines FPGA development with an intuitive visual interface that simplifies design creation, integration, and system implementation.