Due to a problem in the Intel® Quartus® Prime Pro Edition Software version 20.1, this error may occur when compiling the VQM file generated by Intel® Quartus® Prime Pro Edition Software which contains the memory initialization file.
The memory initialization file generated by Intel® Quartus® Prime Pro Edition Software is in the wrong format.
To work around the problem, manually modify the memory initialization file in the VQM file to the original one in your project, instead of using the one generated automatically by Intel® Quartus® Prime Pro Edition Software. This problem is fixed starting with Intel® Quartus® Prime Pro Edition Software version 20.3.