External Memory Interfaces (EMIF) IP User Guide: Agilex™ 5 FPGAs and SoCs

ID 817467
Date 7/08/2024
Public
Document Table of Contents

5. Agilex™ 5 FPGA EMIF IP – Simulating Memory IP

To simulate your design you require the following components:
  • A simulator—The simulator must be an Altera-supported Verilog HDL simulator:
    • Siemens EDA* ModelSim
    • Synopsys* VCS/VCS-MX
  • A design using Altera’s External Memory Interface (EMIF) IP
  • An example driver or traffic generator (to initiate read and write transactions)
  • A testbench and a suitable memory simulation model

The Altera External Memory Interface IP is not compatible with the Platform Designer Testbench System. Instead, use the simulation design example from your generated IP to validate memory interface operation, or as a reference for creating a full simulatable design. The provided simulation design example contains the generated memory interface, a memory model, and a traffic generator. For more information about the EMIF simulation design example, refer to the External Memory Interfaces Agilex™ 5 FPGA IP Design Example User Guide.

Memory Simulation Models

There are two types of memory simulation models that you can use:

  • Altera-provided generic memory model
  • Vendor-specific memory model

The Quartus® Prime software generates the generic memory simulation model with the simulation design example. The model adheres to all the memory protocol specifications, and can be parameterized.

Vendor-specific memory models are simulation models for specific memory components from memory vendors such as Micron and Samsung. You can obtain these simulation models from the memory vendor's website.

Note: Altera does not provide support for vendor-specific memory models.