Passive Serial configuration scheme (PS) Definition
A configuration scheme in which an external controller passes configuration data to one or more Intel devices supported by the Quartus® Prime software, except MAX® II, MAX3000, and MAX7000 devices, via a serial data stream.
The device is treated as a slave device with a 5-wire interface to the external controller. The external controller can be an intelligent host such as a microcontroller or CPU, or the Quartus® Prime Programmer. For Intel devices, the external controller can also be a serial configuration device, such as the EPC2 or EPC16 configuration device.
The Quartus® Prime Compiler automatically generates SRAM Object Files (.sof) that contain the data for configuring Intel devices in a PS configuration scheme.