Intel® Quartus® Prime Pro Edition User Guide: Block-Based Design

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ID 683247
Date 12/16/2019
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Document Table of Contents
Document Table of Contents x
1. Block-Based Design Flows A. Intel® Quartus® Prime Pro Edition User Guides
1. Block-Based Design Flows x
1.1. Block-Based Design Terminology 1.2. Block-Based Design Overview 1.3. Design Methodologies Overview 1.4. Design Partitioning 1.5. Design Block Reuse Flows 1.6. Incremental Block-Based Compilation Flow 1.7. Combining Design Block Reuse and Incremental Block-Based Compilation 1.8. Setting-Up Team-Based Designs 1.9. Bottom-Up Design Considerations 1.10. Debugging Block-Based Designs with the Signal Tap Logic Analyzer 1.11. Block-Based Design Flows Revision History 1.12. Intel® Quartus® Prime Pro Edition User Guide: Block-Based Design Document Archive
1.2. Block-Based Design Overview x
1.2.1. Design Block Reuse Overview 1.2.2. Incremental Block-Based Compilation Overview
1.2.1. Design Block Reuse Overview x
1.2.1.1. Design Block Reuse Examples
1.2.2. Incremental Block-Based Compilation Overview x
1.2.2.1. Incremental Block-Based Compilation Examples
1.3. Design Methodologies Overview x
1.3.1. Top-Down Design Methodology Overview 1.3.2. Bottom-Up Design Methodology Overview 1.3.3. Team-Based Design Methodology Overview
1.4. Design Partitioning x
1.4.1. Planning Partitions for Periphery IP, Clocks, and PLLs 1.4.2. Design Partition Guidelines 1.4.3. Partition Snapshot Preservation and Reuse 1.4.4. Creating Design Partitions
1.5. Design Block Reuse Flows x
1.5.1. Reusing Core Partitions 1.5.2. Reusing Root Partitions 1.5.3. Reserved Core Entity Re-Binding 1.5.4. Viewing Quartus Database File Information
1.5.1. Reusing Core Partitions x
1.5.1.1. Step 1: Developer: Create a Design Partition 1.5.1.2. Step 2: Developer: Compile and Export the Core Partition 1.5.1.3. Step 3: Developer: Create a Black Box File 1.5.1.4. Step 4: Consumer: Add the Core Partition and Compile
1.5.2. Reusing Root Partitions x
1.5.2.1. Step 1: Developer: Create a Reserved Core Partition 1.5.2.2. Step 2: Developer: Define a Logic Lock Region 1.5.2.3. Step 3: Developer: Compile and Export the Root Partition 1.5.2.4. Step 4: Consumer: Add the Root Partition and Compile
1.5.4. Viewing Quartus Database File Information x
1.5.4.1. QDB File Attribute Types
1.6. Incremental Block-Based Compilation Flow x
1.6.1. Incremental Timing Closure 1.6.2. Design Abstraction
1.6.1. Incremental Timing Closure x
1.6.1.1. Incremental Timing Closure Recommendations and Limitations
1.6.2. Design Abstraction x
1.6.2.1. Empty Partition Clock Source Preservation
1.8. Setting-Up Team-Based Designs x
1.8.1. Creating a Top-Level Project for a Team-Based Design
1.8.1. Creating a Top-Level Project for a Team-Based Design x
1.8.1.1. Prepare a Design Partition for Project Integration
1. Block-Based Design Flows
A. Intel® Quartus® Prime Pro Edition User Guides

1.7. Combining Design Block Reuse and Incremental Block-Based Compilation

Design block reuse enables a Developer or IP vendor to deliver a block or IP to a Consumer without delivering the source code. Incremental block-based compilation allows the IP or block Consumer to independently develop wrapper logic. Enabling developers to preserve parts of the design, while third-party IP is under development, reduces the time and effort required for timing closure of the full design. The following figure illustrates this parallel development model.

In the following figure, Sibling2 is a third-party IP, or a partition independently designed by another Developer. A Consumer can create a Logic Lock region for Sibling2, compile the other partitions, and preserve the results. When the Developer subsequently delivers the Sibling2 .qdb, the Consumer then can import this to the full design.

Figure 20. Partitioned Design Hierarchy

The Intel® Quartus® Prime Pro Edition provides support for the following combinations of incremental block-based compilation and design block reuse:

Table 7.  Support for Combined Incremental Block-Based Compilation and Design Block Reuse
Supported Combinations Unsupported Combinations
  • Compilation and export of the parent .qdb file. In a consecutive compilation, you reuse the parent and preserve the child. The parent .qdb snapshot level is the same as the child's preservation level.3
  • Export of a partition as a .qdb, reuse of the .qdb, and preservation of the same partition. The snapshot level that the .qdb preserves must be lower than the partition preservation level.4
  • Preservation of a partition and its child. The child preservation level must be higher or equal to the parent preservation level. Otherwise, the combination is not supported
  • Compilation and export of the parent .qdb file. In a consecutive compilation, you reuse the parent and preserve the child. The child’s preservation level is different from the partition .qdb. Therefore, the Compiler issues a critical warning, and ignores the child preservation level.
  • Reuse of a child .qdb and the parent is Empty.
  • Reuse of a parent .qdb and the child is Empty.
  • Preservation of a child partition and the parent partition is Empty.
  • Preservation of a parent partition and the child is Empty.
  • Reuse a .qdb and the partition is Empty.
  • Reuse of a child .qdb and preserving the parent partition.
  • Preservation of a parent and child partition and the parent preservation level is higher than child’s preservation level.
Note: All supported combinations require an initial compilation, without any reuse or preservation. You then apply reuse or preservation after the initial compilation is complete. Otherwise, the Compiler ignores the preservation level and issues a critical warning.
3 Although the GUI does not support reuse of a partition .qdb and preservation of its child, you can implement this by modifying the .qsf file and compiling at the command line.
4 Supported via .qsf file and command line compilation only.
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