Prop123-A9 Generic Example Files

cgracey · 2017-10-08 09:16

I made a set of files which will let you use your Prop123-A9 board for generic Verilog projects:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9NbgkdrupkHNTNQSG96dm10V0U/view?usp=sharing

David Betz asked me to provide this for those that would like to experiment with their Prop123-A9. If anyone would like the same thing for the Prop123-A7, I can make that, too.

In Quartus, the top-level file must be an AHDL file, which is Altera's own HDL. In this project, the AHDL file (Prop123_A9.tdf) pulls in the Verilog file (Prop123_A9_Verilog) and passes it all the pin signals. The Verilog file can then control the pins.

In the included Verilog file, a counter is output to the green LEDs and an 8-bit LFSR is output to the red LEDs. All unused output pins are driven to safe levels.

To use these files, unzip them into their own directory. Then, in Quartus, go to the directory and open the project file (Prop123_A9.qpf). After compiling, use the PX program to download the resultant Prop123_A9.rbf into the Prop123-A9 board.

Heater. · 2017-10-08 10:41

No can do. My Quartus Prime (16.1.0) complains about an unsupported device family and suggests I use an older version of Quartus. That ain't going to happen as I'm going to run out of gigabytes on this Surface Pro 4.

Grrr...

In case I get time to install on some other machine, what version of Quartus are people using for this?

Am I right in understanding that I have to go backwards in Quartus version in order to go forwards in device generation? The Quartus I have here works for Cyclone IV but not V apparently? How nuts is that?!

More Grr....

Screenshot%20%2872%29.png

ozpropdev · 2017-10-08 10:49

Heater
You should be Ok to use 16.1 and even earlier but you will need the cyclone V device file.
FYI I'm using 17.0 so I can use the new Cyclone 10 stuff.

cgracey · 2017-10-08 10:53

Heater, it's saying two conflicting things:

1) You need to install support for Cyclone V devices.
2) You must use an older version of Quartus for Cyclone V devices.

I don't get it. Did they get rid of Cyclone V or call it something else? Why do they support Cyclone IV, if not Cyclone V? I seem to be using Quartus II v15.0 64-bit web edition.

David Betz · 2017-10-08 10:59

cgracey wrote: »

I made a set of files which will let you use your Prop123-A9 board for generic Verilog projects:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9NbgkdrupkHNTNQSG96dm10V0U/view?usp=sharing

David Betz asked me to provide this for those that would like to experiment with their Prop123-A9. If anyone would like the same thing for the Prop123-A7, I can make that, too.

In Quartus, the top-level file must be an AHDL file, which is Altera's own HDL. In this project, the AHDL file (Prop123_A9.tdf) pulls in the Verilog file (Prop123_A9_Verilog) and passes it all the pin signals. The Verilog file can then control the pins.

In the included Verilog file, a counter is output to the green LEDs and an 8-bit LFSR is output to the red LEDs. All unused output pins are driven to safe levels.

To use these files, unzip them into their own directory. Then, in Quartus, go to the directory and open the project file (Prop123_A9.qpf). After compiling, use the PX program to download the resultant Prop123_A9.rbf into the Prop123-A9 board.

Thanks, Chip! I've been working on my old CPU design by testing various parts using Icarus Verilog. It will be nice to try them on an actual FPGA.

cgracey · 2017-10-08 11:04

Maybe they made Cyclone V devices only compile on the subscription version of Quartus?

Cluso99 · 2017-10-08 12:22

Quartus 16 supports Cyclone V. You just need to download and install the Cyclone V support files. IIRC it's around 1GB.

I am using Quartus 17 and deleted Quartus 16.

Q17 has already advised that the web license will expire in December. Another 10GB download coming up

Tor · 2017-10-08 12:29

License expiring? That's something new, I hope.. it must be. Otherwise I wouldn't be able to continue using the old version which still supports Cyclone II. But I haven't used it for quite some time, so who knows.
Grr. Closed software is *never* good.

Heater. · 2017-10-08 13:04

Bloody hell...

Two hours and 10 gigabytes of downloads later I have Quartus 17 installed.

The error message I posted above lies. You just need the Cyclone device files for version 16.

They offer you the Akamai Download Manager, apparently to make life easier. Of course it fails the download after 40 minutes near the end. With no indication of how you can resume the download. Not to mention adding more security vulnerabilities to ones system.

In frustration I downloaded all of version 17. Another 5 gigs and half an hour....

Now where is the uninstaller for 16?

Why is everything in Windows world so hard?

Especially this Quartus disaster. If this is "Lite" I for sure don't want to go near the heavy version!

Is it any better over in Xilinx world?

Anyway. The example compiles here now. I only wanted to see what was in it!

Seairth · 2017-10-08 14:14

Heater. wrote: »

Why is everything in Windows world so hard?

To be fair, this is solely a Quartus issue. There is nothing about it being on Windows that makes it this difficult to maintain.

evanh · 2017-10-08 14:18

Heater. · 2017-10-08 14:44

Searith,

Admittedly Quartus is a pig. But the installation on Linux is much simpler than what I have just been through on Windows:

1. Download the software .tar file. (wget whatever)
2. Extract the files into the same temporary directory. (tar -xvf whatever)
3. Run the setup.sh file. (./setup)

Heater. · 2017-10-08 14:47

Oh, and why do I find that Quartus is using 60% of my CPU after I closed it down an hour ago? WTF?

Cluso99 · 2017-10-08 21:07

Quartus is phoning the mothership and sending all your code on your HDD/Flashdrive home

BTW I found the install on W10 easy. Same for uninstall (its in settings/program updates or something similar). Only issue if every W version has the uninstaller in a different location. There is no such thing as consistency here. But I find looking at Linux install instructions so daunting, that I have never bothered running Linux.

Heater. · 2017-10-09 12:06

Cluso99,

You are an enigma.

A man steeped in computers and computing since forever. Who once kept a mainframe in his garage. A master of circuit design and programming. From assembler to Verilog.

And yet, totally resistant to the charms of Linux and the power and convenience it offers.

Cluso99 · 2017-10-09 13:52

Heater. wrote: »

Cluso99,

You are an enigma.

A man steeped in computers and computing since forever. Who once kept a mainframe in his garage. A master of circuit design and programming. From assembler to Verilog.

And yet, totally resistant to the charms of Linux and the power and convenience it offers.

Yes I know

But I like the GUI and graduated beyond the old batch files.

Heater. · 2017-10-09 20:37

Cluso99,

Don't get me wrong. I love a GUI.

Give me an editor/IDE with syntax highlighting and red squiggly underlining where my code is wrong. And a "go" button to download/run my software creation.

A GUI is great for many day to day things.

But a GUI is always limited, it provides a very small subset of the possibilities a computer offers. In as much as it tries to cover all those possibilities it gets more and more clunky and unusable.

At the end of the day, there are no GUI widgets to do many of the interesting things I want to do with a computer. Luckily even MS acknowledges this by providing a Linux Subsystem BASH shell for Windows 10. It would be unusable for me otherwise.

I can understand when you say "...graduated beyond the old batch files". If you are talking about the terrible MS-DOS command line and its batch files.

Otherwise I don't see a graduation. A GUI is a convenient subset of all that is available. Often all that mousing and clicking is more work than the command line.

Cluso99 · 2017-10-09 21:46

It's long been known (at least by some) that a GUI interface for computer operators (concentrating on business data entry) is significantly slower that the old text data entry.

However, most staff have demanded the GUI over the old text entry, and so the GUI has (almost?) won out entirely. That's because it's so much easier, but certainly not faster.

Sometimes we go with the flow, other times we go because it's easier.

I often post on my iPhone, as I am doing now, not because it's easier or faster, but because i can do it when eating breakfast (now) or at other convenient times when I either am not at my computer (laptop) or my computer is not powered up.

Here's a conundrum for you...
I wish my iPad Mini has the iphone functionality (it's capable but not enabled) because I want a larger screen than the iPhone Plus for most things I use it for.
On the other hand I would love it to be smaller...
An iWatch 3 (ie with mobile inbuilt) with ability to use a dumb larger tablet over wifi/Bluetooth for most times I need it, but when I am just out (say shopping) the iWatch would be sufficient.

BTW "Dick Tracy" has arrived with the just released iWatch

Prop123-A9 Generic Example Files

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