Using Quartus from command line

Question

I am trying to use Quartus II 13.0 (Free Web Package) on Linux (Kubuntu 12.04 LTS) from the command line to generate Verilog technology netlists from Verilog RTL. I need this for a project where I compare the synthesis results produced by different tools for thousands of generated Verilog files. So using the GUI is not really an option..

For example with Xilinx Vivado I can do that using the following TCL commands:

read_verilog input.v
synth_design -part xc7k70t -top top_module
write_verilog output.v

Most ASIC tools I have worked with provide similar interfaces.

With Xilinx XST it is a bit more complicated:

1.) generation of a work.xst file:

run -ifn work.prj ..some..more..options..

2.) generation of a work.prj file:

verilog work "input.v"

3.) running synthesis:

xst -ifn work.xst

4.) generating verilog netlist from verilog binary:

netgen -w -ofmt verilog work.ngc output

But with Quartus II I can't find any documentation at all on how to use the command line tools. All I can find is documentation to the graphical IDE interface. Maybe I'm just looking in the wrong places?

So before I start poking the Quartus II IDE with strace and similar tools: Is anyone using Quartus II from the command line and can point me in the right direction?

Answer 1

It's very well hidden - Quartus-II Handbook Version 13.0, page 2-10 (or search ASSIGNMENT_FILES) - produces one example Makefile. It seems to have bit-rot - I've removed the ASSIGNMENT_FILES stuff, and the stamps are redundant (you can check for logfiles), but it's a start, and the basic structure works.

Answer 2

For example the following shell script synthesizes the module binary_ops_00000000 from the design file binary_ops_00000000.v:

PATH=$PATH:/opt/altera/13.0/quartus/bin
quartus_map binary_ops_00000000 --source=binary_ops_00000000.v --family="Cyclone III" 
quartus_fit binary_ops_00000000
quartus_eda binary_ops_00000000 --formal_verification --tool=conformal
cp -v fv/conformal/binary_ops_00000000.vo output.v

quartus_eda supports a wide range of differend modes (see quartus_eda --help=tool for a table). The Verilog generated for Conformal LEC looks fine for my purpose.

I'd recommend running this commands in an otherwise empty directory, as they generate a bunch of files and in some cases print error messages if files from previous runs (with different setting) are found.

Answer 3

You can find helpful Quartus II Tcl Examples page on intel.com.

Answer 4

You can also use the following to get help on both all command-line arguments and Tcl functions

quartus_sh --qhelp