About Advisors in the Quartus® Prime Software
The Compilation Time Advisor, Timing Optimization Advisor, and Power Optimization Advisor use current project information and settings to make recommendations of project settings and assignments, individual entity assignments, and design changes for partitioning a design or optimizing a project for power, resource usage, or timing.
The recommendations are organized into general recommendations and more specific recommendations for each category. Where applicable, the categories are organized into a series of stages, presented by complexity.
Each Recommendation provides a Description, Summary, and Action.
- Description— Describes the reason for the recommendation and information on the settings and assignments for the recommendation. The description may also include links to the appropriate topic in Quartus® Prime Help or chapter in the Quartus® Prime Handbook.
- Summary— Describes the net effect of the recommendation on the fMAX, logic element usage, compilation time, or power consumption for the design. The effects of the recommendation for the design are indicated by the following symbols:
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- (+)— The recommendation has a net positive effect on the design.
- (-)— The recommendation has a net negative effect on the design.
- (=)— The recommendation does not have an effect on the design.
- Action— Describes the options for the recommendation, the specific steps necessary to implement it, and the current status of the settings or assignments for the recommendation. If applicable, the action also links to the appropriate Quartus® Prime dialog box, page in the Settings dialog box, or category in the Assignment Editor.
The recommendations in a Quartus® Prime advisor include icons that indicate the status of the recommendation with respect to the actual project settings, individual entity settings, and assignments for your design. The following table lists the icons and the status they indicate:
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Icon |
Description |
|---|---|
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Indicates a violation in the recommendation category. |
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Indicates that the project settings, individual entity settings, or assignments for the recommendation do not match the recommendations. |
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Indicates that some of the project settings match the recommendations, but their impact is minimal. |
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Indicates that all project settings (global, instance, or both) match the recommendations. |
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Indicates that the optimization advisor cannot determine whether the recommendation has been implemented. For example, for the Optimize source code recommendation, the Quartus® Prime software cannot determine whether the source code for the design has been optimized. |
You can use the advisors in the Quartus® Prime software in the following ways:
- Suggestions on ways to reduce compilation time with the Compilation Time Advisor.
- Timing optimization advice after performing timing analysis on a design from the Timing Optimization Advisor.
- Power optimization tips from the Power Optimization Advisor after performing a full compilation of a design and running the PowerPlay® Power Analyzer.
- The Arria® 10 to Stratix® 10 Migration Advisor recommends devices and provides guidance for correcting common issues when migrating a design from Arria® 10 to Stratix® 10.
You can then use the appropriate optimization advisor to obtain recommendations on project settings, assignments, or design changes that may help to fit your project or meet the timing or power requirements of the project. After implementing the recommendation, you can compile the project again to view the results of the optimization. The Power Optimization Advisor may also require you run the PowerPlay® Power Analyzer repeatedly in order to refine power estimates.