First Look at QuartusII 6.1

I just downloaded from Altera's website QuartusII 6.1 and tried it out. I was disappointed that they didn't include any StratixIII device files with the web edition. I wanted to compare how QuartusII would have fitted what I'm working on, to the new devices.

I also found the installer locked you into a predefined destination install directory. At one point I changed my install directory from 'quartus' to 'QuartusII'. The new installer will let you select the path to the directory but not the end directory. When I launched QuartusII it still was able to find my license file in the other directory. NiosII EDS, MegaCore Lib and ModelSim did the same. Maybe it is a bug in the installer because when I installed it didn't display the whole path but I doubt it since all the installers behaved that way.

But comparing version 6.1 to 5.1 sp 2 I found it made better use of my dual core system then previous releases and it reported some of my signal paths slightly faster.

Good job.

Derek

Reply to
Derek Simmons
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Strange, in my download the smallest Stratix III were included... (I used custom installation, maybe that made a difference ?)

Have you seen the "Maximum processors" in "Compilation process settings"? Changing this two 2 gives you another 10% improvement (better than nothing...).

Thomas

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Reply to
Thomas Entner

Hmmm. If the software developers can't figure out a variable path, I'm not sure I would be willing to trust my FPGA development to them.

[I will note that this is a personal nit; put the tools where *I* want them, not some predetermined place *you* want them]

Cheers

PeteS

Reply to
PeteS

When I restarted QuartusII the next time the StratixIII devices were available. The first time I ran it I clicked on the 'Web License Update' and I don't know why it didn't occure to me then that I should restart the application. Maybe I was talking to somebody. Anyways they are available now.

I didn't see much of difference in build time or processor activity when I changed the number of processors. But my code really isn't too complex. At the statement level it isn't too complex and I stay away from complex compound statements (less work for the front end). Other designers code I have looked at can run on page after page, and I think to myself that they could have broken it up, created a simpler presentation, and made it easier to maintain.

Derek

Reply to
Derek Simmons

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