Specifications

CHAPTER 11: PROGRAMMING & CONFIGURATION
INTRODUCTION
182 ■ INTRODUCTION TO QUARTUS II ALTERA CORPORATION
Introduction
Once you have successfully compiled a project with the Quartus
®
II
software, you can program or configure an Altera
®
device. The Assembler
module of the Quartus II Compiler generates programming files that the
Quartus II Programmer can use to program or configure a device with
Altera programming hardware. You can also use a stand-alone version of
the Quartus II Programmer to program and configure devices. Figure 1
shows the programming design flow.
Figure 1. Programming Design Flow
The Assembler automatically converts the Fitter’s device, logic cell, and pin
assignments into a programming image for the device, in the form of one or
more Programmer Object Files (.pof) or SRAM Object Files (.sof) for the
target device.
You can start a full compilation in the Quartus II software, which includes
the Assembler module, or you can run the Assembler separately.
Quartus II Assembler
quartus_asm
Quartus II
Programmer
quartus_pgm
Programmer Object
Files (.pof) & SRAM
Object Files (.sof)
from the
Quartus II
Fitter
Chain
Description
Files (.cdf)
Quartus II Convert
Programming Files
quartus_cpf
Altera
Programming
Hardware
Secondary programming files, including Raw Binary Files (.rbf),
Tabular Text Files (.ttf), Raw Programming Data Files (.rpd),
Hexadecimal Output Files for EPC16 (.hex), JTAG Indirect
Programming Files (.jic), Flash Loader Hexadecimal Files (.flhex) &
POFs for Local Update or Remote Update
to other systems,
such as embedded
processors
Jam Files (.jam) &
Jam Byte-Code
Files (.jbc)
Serial Vector Format
Files (.svf) & In System
Configuration Files (.isc)
I/O Pin
State
Files (.ips)
MAX+PLUS II JTAG
Chain Files (.jcf) or
FLEX Chain Files (.fcf)