Platform Designer

The Platform Designer is the next-generation system integration tool in the Intel® Quartus® Prime Software. The Platform Designer saves significant time and effort in the FPGA design process by automatically generating interconnect logic to connect intellectual property (IP) functions and subsystems. The Platform Designer utilizes a powerful hierarchical framework to offer fast response times for interconnecting large systems, while also providing support for blackbox entities. This enables the Platform Designer to provide fast response times while opening systems and creating new connections by regenerating or operating on IP blocks that have changed. The new Platform Designer tool also supports a variety of design entry methods, such as register transfer level (RTL) languages, block-based design entry, to schematic entry, and black boxes.

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Platform Designer (Standard / Platform Designer Pro) Platform Designer (Standard) / Platform Designer Pro Advantages
Packaged Subsystem
  • Ability to easily package all or part of a Platform Designer system into an IP (component).
  • The resulting IP can then be found in the IP catalog.
  • Easily share and reuse in different projects inside or outside Platform Designer.
Board awareness
  • Faster design creation for Intel and 3rd party boards.
  • Ability to apply IP presets with pre-assigned pin locations and IO standards for a target board.
Faster development
  • Easy-to-use GUI interface enables quick integration between IP functions and subsystems.
  • Automatic generation of interconnect logic. (address/data bus connections, bus width matching logic, address decoder logic, arbitration logic, etc.)
  • Availability of plug-and-play Platform Designer-compliant IP. (Note: Platform Designer-Pro compliance is not available for all IP)
  • Support mixing of different industry-standard interfaces including Avalon®, Arm AMBA AXI, AMBA APB, and AMBA AHB interfaces.
  • Automatic HDL generation of your system.
  • Hierarchical design flow enables scalable designs, team-based design, and maximizes design reuse.
  • Migration flow to Platform Designer (does not apply to Platform Designer Pro) for SOPC Builder designs.
Faster timing closure
  • High-performance Platform Designer (Standard) interconnect based on the NoC architecture and automatic pipelining delivers higher performance compared to SOPC Builder’s system interconnect fabric.
  • Ability to control the aggressiveness of automatic pipelining to meet fMAX and latency system requirements.
Faster verification
  • Ability to start your simulation faster with automatic testbench generation and by using the verification IP suite.
  • Faster board bring-up with System Console by sending read-and-write transactions into a live system.
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Tests measure performance of components on a particular test, in specific systems. Differences in hardware, software, or configuration will affect actual performance. Consult other sources of information to evaluate performance as you consider your purchase. For more complete information about performance and benchmark results, visit www.intel.com/benchmarks.

Board Awareness in Platform Designer: End User Flow

Learn how to accelerate the design process by using the new board awareness capability in platform designer.

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Board Awareness in Platform Designer: Board Author Flow

Learn how to use the board awareness feature to create board and IP preset files that include details such as device family, device parts, pin assignments, I/O standards and IP settings for a target board to enable simpler design creation from the get-go.

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Design Example Discovery

Learn how to save time in the design process by easily accessing design examples from various repositories, including online design examples from the Intel Design Store and pre-installed design examples that are shipped as part of Quartus.

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AMBA AXI and Avalon Interoperation Using Platform Designer (Standard)

See how seamless it is to integrate IP components with AMBA AXI interfaces with Avalon interfaces using the Platform Designer (Standard).

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