Intel® Quartus® Prime Standard Edition User Guide: PCB Design Tools

ID 683619
Date 9/24/2018
Public
Document Table of Contents

3.1. FPGA-to-PCB Design Flow

You can create a design flow integrating an Intel FPGA design from the Intel® Quartus® Prime software, and a circuit schematic in the DxDesigner software.
Figure 28. Design Flow with and Without the I/O Designer Software


Note: The Intel® Quartus® Prime software generates the .fx in the output directory you specify in the Board-Level page of the Settings dialog box. However, the Intel® Quartus® Prime software and the I/O Designer software can import pin assignments from an .fx located in any directory. Use a backup .fx to prevent overwriting existing assignments or importing invalid assignments.

To integrate the I/O Designer into your design flow, follow these steps:

  1. In the Intel® Quartus® Prime software, click Assignments > Settings > EDA Tool Settings > Board-Level to specify settings for .fx symbol file generation.
  2. Compile your design to generate the .fx and Pin-Out File (.pin) in the Intel® Quartus® Prime project directory.
  3. Create a board design with the DxDesigner software and the I/O Designer software by performing the following steps:
    1. Create a new I/O Designer database based on the .fx and the .pin files.
    2. In the I/O Designer software, make adjustments to signal and pin assignments.
    3. Regenerate the .fx in the I/O Designer software to export the I/O Designer software changes to the Intel® Quartus® Prime software.
    4. Generate a single or fractured symbol for use in the DxDesigner software.
    5. Add the symbol to the sym directory of a DxDesigner project, or specify a new DxDesigner project with the new symbol.
    6. Instantiate the symbol in your DxDesigner schematic and export the design to the board layout tool.
    7. Back-annotate pin changes created in the board layout tool to the DxDesigner software and back to the I/O Designer software and the Intel® Quartus® Prime software.
  4. Create a board design with the DxDesigner software without the I/O Designer software by performing the following steps:
    1. Create a new DxBoardLink symbol with the Symbol wizard and reference the .pin from the Intel® Quartus® Prime software in an existing DxDesigner project.
    2. Instantiate the symbol in your DxDesigner schematic and export the design to a board layout tool.
Note: You can update these symbols with design changes with or without the I/O Designer software. If you use the Mentor Graphics* I/O Designer software and you change symbols with the DxDesigner software, you must reimport the symbols into I/O Designer to avoid overwriting your symbol changes.