Generating an IBIS Output File

You can generate an IBIS Output File (.ibs) Definition in the Quartus® Prime software to perform board-level signal integrity verification in other EDA tools.
 
You can use the Quartus® Prime EDA Netlist Writer GUI to generate custom pre-synthesis or post-fit IBIS models.
  • Post-fit IBIS models (available for all devices)—allow accurate simulation of your target device and current project assignments discovered when you run the Fitter stage of compilation.
  • Pre-synthesis IBIS models (available only for Agilex™ FPGA portfolio devices)—support early design simulation before design synthesis or fitting. The EDA Netlist Writer generates pre-synthesis IBIS models based on the assignments you enter in the project .qsf only. The assignments legality check occurs during the Fitter, hence the pre-synthesis IBIS models may differ from the post-fit IBIS models because there is no assignments legality check performed during the pre-synthesis IBIS model generation. You must ensure that all the assignments are set according the General Purpose I/O User Guide for the target Agilex™ FPGA portfolio device.

IBIS files that you generate with the EDA Netlist Writer automatically include the RLC values for your current target device.

Before generating the custom IBIS model, you can specify I/O constraints to define things like drive strength, enabling of clamping diodes for ESD protection, and other settings. The custom IBIS models that EDA Netlist Writer generates then reflect the I/O assignments.

To generate custom IBIS models with the EDA Netlist Writer GUI, follow these steps:

  1. To specify the format, version, and output location of the generated model files, click Assignments > Settings > EDA Tool Settings.
  2. Under Board Level signal integrity analysis, specify IBIS for the Format, the supported IBIS version that you want, and the location of the Output directory for the generated files.
  3. Click Assignments > Device. In the Device dialog box, click the Device and Pin Options button and review and specify any optional IBIS settings.
  4. To run the EDA Netlist Writer to generate the custom IBIS model files, perform one of the following:
    • To generate the post-fit IBIS models, click Processing > Start > Start EDA Netlist Writer.
    • To generate the post-synthesis IBIS models, click Processing > Start > Start Pre-Synthesis IBIS. To generate Pre-synthesis IBIS models through command line, kindly refer to /quartus/common/misc/ibis_writer/README.txt