DSP Builder for Intel® FPGAs (Advanced Blockset): Handbook

ID 683337
Date 9/30/2024
Public
Document Table of Contents

8.4.3. Example DSP Builder Custom Scripts

You can write scripts that directly change parameters (such as the hardware destination directory) on the Control and Signals blocks.

For example, in a script that passes the design name (without .mdl extension) as model you can use:

%% Load the model
load_system(model);
%% Get the Signals block
signals = find_system(model, 'type', 'block', 'MaskType', 'DSP Builder Advanced Blockset Signals Block');
if (isempty(signals)) 
   error('The design must contain a Signals Block. ');
end;
%% Get the Controls block
control = find_system(model, 'type', 'block', 'MaskType', 'DSP Builder Advanced Blockset Control Block');
if (isempty(control)) 
   error('The design must contain a Control Block. ');
end;%% 
Example: set the RTL destination directory
dest_dir = ['../rtl' num2str(freq)];
dspba.SetRTLDestDir(model, rtlDir);

Similarly you can get and set other parameters. For example, on the Signals block you can set the target clock frequency:

fmax_freq = 300.0; dspba.set_param(signals{1},'freq', fmax_freq);

You can also change the following threshold values that are parameters on the Control block:

  • distRamThresholdBits
  • hardMultiplierThresholdLuts
  • mlabThresholdBits
  • ramThresholdBits

You can loop over changing these values, change the destination directory, run the Quartus Prime software each time, and perform design space exploration. For example:

%% Run a simulation; which also does the RTL generation.
t = sim(model);
%% Then run the Quartus Prime compilation flow.
[success, details] = run_hw_compilation(<model>, './')%% 
where details is a struct containing resource and timing information 
   details.Logic, 
   details.Comb_Aluts, 
   details.Mem_Aluts, 
   details.Regs, 
   details.ALM, 
   details.DSP_18bit, 
   details.Mem_Bits, 
   details.M9K, 
   details.M144K, 
   details.IO, 
   details.FMax, 
   details.Slack, 
   details.Required, 
   details.FMax_unres, 
   details.timingpath, 
   details.dir, 
   details.command, 
   details.pwd
such that >> disp(details) gives output something like: 
   Logic: 4915 
   Comb_Aluts: 3213 
   Mem_Aluts: 377 
   Regs: 4725 
   ALM: 2952 
   DSP_18bit: 68 
   Mem_Bits: 719278 
   M9K: 97 
   M144K: 0 IO: 116 
   FMax: 220.1700 
   Slack: 0.4581 
   Required: 200 
   FMax_unres: 220.1700 
   timingpath: [1x4146 char] 
   dir: '../quartus_demo_ifft_4096_for_SPR_FFT_4K_n_2' 
   command: [1x266 char] 
   pwd: 'D:\test\script'
Note: The Timing Report is in the timingpath variable, which you can display by disp(details.timingpath). Unused resources may appear as -1, rather than 0.

You must previously execute load_system before commands such as find_system and run_hw_compilation work.

A useful set of commands to generate RTL, compile in the Quartus Prime software and return the details is:

load_system(<model>);
sim(<model>);
[success, details] = run_hw_compilation(<model>, './')