Specifications

CHAPTER 7: SIMULATION

SIMULATING DESIGNS WITH THE QUARTUS II SIMULATOR

138 ■ INTRODUCTION TO QUARTUS II ALTERA CORPORATION

The following steps describe the basic flow for performing either a

functional or timing simulation in the Quartus II software:

1. Specify Simulator settings.

2. If you are performing a functional simulation, choose the Generate

Functional Simulation Netlist command. If you are performing a

timing simulation, compile the design.

3. Create and specify a vector source file.

4. Run the simulation using the Start > Start Simulation command

(Processing menu), the Simulator Tool window, or the quartus_sim

executable.

The Status window shows the progress of a simulation and the processing

time. The Summary Section section of the Report window shows the

simulation results.

Creating Waveform Files

The Quartus II Waveform Editor allows you to create and edit input vectors

for simulation in waveform or text format. Using the Waveform Editor, you

can add input vectors to the waveform file that describe the behavior of the

logic in your design. See Figure 4.

Using the quartus_sim executable

You can also run the Simulator separately at the command prompt or in a script by

using the quartus_sim executable.

The quartus_sim executable creates a separate text-based report file that can be

viewed with any text editor.

If you want to get help on the quartus_sim executable, type one of the following

commands at the command prompt:

quartus_sim -h

quartus_sim --help r

quartus_sim --help=<topic name> r