FPGA Central

Hi

so far I hear that "Altera tools are getting better" - now I wonder
how long should one wait til they become useable?

Q II 7.1, very small design for smallex MAX2

Quartus will self-terminate every few hours, the PC has 2GB RAM, isnt
that enought for the ultimate smallest MAX2 !?

also the UFM block simulation doesnt want to work at all, well maybe i
am doing something wrong yet, but I havent seen the UFM content ever
been shifter out in the simulation

Antti

On 25 Okt., 12:54, Antti <[email protected]> wrote:
> Hi
>
> so far I hear that "Altera tools are getting better" - now I wonder
> how long should one wait til they become useable?
>
> Q II 7.1, very small design for smallex MAX2
>
> Quartus will self-terminate every few hours, the PC has 2GB RAM, isnt
> that enought for the ultimate smallest MAX2 !?
>
> also the UFM block simulation doesnt want to work at all, well maybe i
> am doing something wrong yet, but I havent seen the UFM content ever
> been shifter out in the simulation
>
> Antti

ok, the situation with quartus isnt that bad.
well it did self-terminated itself again 5 times in the last 2 hours
but at least the UFM simulation works ok, was possible only
caused by the mis-interpreted by quartus HEX file. with MIF
the UFM sims do work ok

Antti

Surely you would be the kind of person to jump to conclusion? I have
used Quartus II from before version 6 and I have never had a crash
(unlike with ISE).

Tommy

Tommy Thorn wrote:

> Surely you would be the kind of person to jump to conclusion? I have
> used Quartus II from before version 6 and I have never had a crash
> (unlike with ISE).

You mustn't use it very much then! I'm not saying it's flakey, it _is_
pretty stable, but I certainly couldn't say it _never_ crashes.

Antti, I have it on good authority that Quartus v7.1 is not to be touched
with a 10-ft clown pole, but v7.2 fixes a lot of the problems with it. I'm
still using v7.0 myself (for this reason), so all this is just hear-say.

Regards,

--
Mark McDougall, Engineer
Virtual Logic Pty Ltd, <http://www.vl.com.au>
21-25 King St, Rockdale, 2216
Ph: +612-9599-3255 Fax: +612-9599-3266

On 25 Okt., 23:21, Tommy Thorn <[email protected]> wrote:
> Surely you would be the kind of person to jump to conclusion? I have
> used Quartus II from before version 6 and I have never had a crash
> (unlike with ISE).
>
> Tommy

eh, yes, I have really occasionally touched quartus.
to my memory it did never have problems.

so that made me really wonder that 7.1 self-terminates about once per
hour.

expect that self-termiation it works rather fine, and yes its better
to live
with occasioal self-closure then real bugs with tools like some other
vendor tools

Antti

On Oct 25, 10:37 pm, Antti <[email protected]> wrote:
> On 25 Okt., 23:21, Tommy Thorn <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> > Surely you would be the kind of person to jump to conclusion? I have
> > used Quartus II from before version 6 and I have never had a crash
> > (unlike with ISE).
>
> > Tommy
>
> eh, yes, I have really occasionally touched quartus.
> to my memory it did never have problems.
>
> so that made me really wonder that 7.1 self-terminates about once per
> hour.
>
> expect that self-termiation it works rather fine, and yes its better
> to live
> with occasioal self-closure then real bugs with tools like some other
> vendor tools
>
> Antti

I am not sure I follow - your smallest design takes hour(s) to
synthesize and p&r??? I have used Q2 7.1 for about 20K le designs.
So far no problems. But I must say, that Q2 does crash once in a
blue moon but that is during synthesis.

On 26 Okt., 14:30, fpgabuilder <[email protected]> wrote:
> On Oct 25, 10:37 pm, Antti <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>
>
>
>
> > On 25 Okt., 23:21, Tommy Thorn <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> > > Surely you would be the kind of person to jump to conclusion? I have
> > > used Quartus II from before version 6 and I have never had a crash
> > > (unlike with ISE).
>
> > > Tommy
>
> > eh, yes, I have really occasionally touched quartus.
> > to my memory it did never have problems.
>
> > so that made me really wonder that 7.1 self-terminates about once per
> > hour.
>
> > expect that self-termiation it works rather fine, and yes its better
> > to live
> > with occasioal self-closure then real bugs with tools like some other
> > vendor tools
>
> > Antti
>
> I am not sure I follow - your smallest design takes hour(s) to
> synthesize and p&r??? I have used Q2 7.1 for about 20K le designs.
> So far no problems. But I must say, that Q2 does crash once in a
> blue moon but that is during synthesis.- Zitierten Text ausblenden -
>
> - Zitierten Text anzeigen -

no, the design take very little time to run p&r
but Quartus itself SELF-terminates itself at least 1 time each hour!

ok, so what you see "once in a blue moon" I see at least every hour...

I switched from 7.1 to 7.2 maybe its better now

Antti

On Oct 26, 5:42 am, Antti <[email protected]> wrote:
> On 26 Okt., 14:30, fpgabuilder <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>
>
> > On Oct 25, 10:37 pm, Antti <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> > > On 25 Okt., 23:21, Tommy Thorn <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> > > > Surely you would be the kind of person to jump to conclusion? I have
> > > > used Quartus II from before version 6 and I have never had a crash
> > > > (unlike with ISE).
>
> > > > Tommy
>
> > > eh, yes, I have really occasionally touched quartus.
> > > to my memory it did never have problems.
>
> > > so that made me really wonder that 7.1 self-terminates about once per
> > > hour.
>
> > > expect that self-termiation it works rather fine, and yes its better
> > > to live
> > > with occasioal self-closure then real bugs with tools like some other
> > > vendor tools
>
> > > Antti
>
> > I am not sure I follow - your smallest design takes hour(s) to
> > synthesize and p&r??? I have used Q2 7.1 for about 20K le designs.
> > So far no problems. But I must say, that Q2 does crash once in a
> > blue moon but that is during synthesis.- Zitierten Text ausblenden -
>
> > - Zitierten Text anzeigen -
>
> no, the design take very little time to run p&r
> but Quartus itself SELF-terminates itself at least 1 time each hour!
>
> ok, so what you see "once in a blue moon" I see at least every hour...
>
> I switched from 7.1 to 7.2 maybe its better now
>
> Antti

Haven't seen that problem. I leave Q2 7.1 running before leaving at
night. It goes through s,p&r for about 1/2 hour and then just sits
idle without crashing or terminating. Could it be the license server
on your machine? Or one of those Altera Opencore evaluation ip timing
out on you?

On 26 Okt., 14:58, fpgabuilder <[email protected]> wrote:
> On Oct 26, 5:42 am, Antti <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>
>
>
>
> > On 26 Okt., 14:30, fpgabuilder <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> > > On Oct 25, 10:37 pm, Antti <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> > > > On 25 Okt., 23:21, Tommy Thorn <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> > > > > Surely you would be the kind of person to jump to conclusion? I have
> > > > > used Quartus II from before version 6 and I have never had a crash
> > > > > (unlike with ISE).
>
> > > > > Tommy
>
> > > > eh, yes, I have really occasionally touched quartus.
> > > > to my memory it did never have problems.
>
> > > > so that made me really wonder that 7.1 self-terminates about once per
> > > > hour.
>
> > > > expect that self-termiation it works rather fine, and yes its better
> > > > to live
> > > > with occasioal self-closure then real bugs with tools like some other
> > > > vendor tools
>
> > > > Antti
>
> > > I am not sure I follow - your smallest design takes hour(s) to
> > > synthesize and p&r??? I have used Q2 7.1 for about 20K le designs.
> > > So far no problems. But I must say, that Q2 does crash once in a
> > > blue moon but that is during synthesis.- Zitierten Text ausblenden -
>
> > > - Zitierten Text anzeigen -
>
> > no, the design take very little time to run p&r
> > but Quartus itself SELF-terminates itself at least 1 time each hour!
>
> > ok, so what you see "once in a blue moon" I see at least every hour...
>
> > I switched from 7.1 to 7.2 maybe its better now
>
> > Antti
>
> Haven't seen that problem. I leave Q2 7.1 running before leaving at
> night. It goes through s,p&r for about 1/2 hour and then just sits
> idle without crashing or terminating. Could it be the license server
> on your machine? Or one of those Altera Opencore evaluation ip timing
> out on you?- Zitierten Text ausblenden -
>
> - Zitierten Text anzeigen -

i did work very much with the simulator, so I was typing and clicking
with mouse all the time
and witnessed those self-closure effects.
maybe it is related to simulator somehow

Antti

Antti wrote:

> ok, so what you see "once in a blue moon" I see at least every hour...
>
> I switched from 7.1 to 7.2 maybe its better now

So you should know if it is better fairly quickly
Perhaps it's also device dependant ?

-jg