best machine for quartus and future multithreaded place and route plans...

[wallge]

So I asked Altera when they would release a version of Quartus that
would support multi-threaded
place and route (this takes the most time on the designs I have worked
on)
I also asked them about the best (fastest) PC to run quartus on.
here's my questions followed by their answers.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Q:
at the end of year I am thinking of purchasing a new PC to do my
quartus
and EDA development on. I was wondering how the system requirements
will change with the release of vista, and what the ideal system
configuration for
running fast synthesis and place and route will be. Right now I am
having to wait between
15 minutes and two hours for various designs to compile. What system
components will most contribute to faster place and route and synthesis
(eg, more ram, more processors, faster ram, faster processors, 32 vs 64
bit
architecture?, any specific CPU more highly rated then others?)

A:
Altera does not have recommendations for CPUs/Mother Board. About the
choice for AMD or Intel processor, Altera does not have testcases to
show one way or another.

However, the compile time is mostly related to CPU speed and physical
memory size. For detailed information on memory requirements for
compilation targeting different device architectures, please refer to
the readme file by clicking Quartus II menu "Help -> Readme File".

If system memory is enough and Quartus II don't use hard disk as
virtual memory, you could try to upgrade your CPU speed for good
performance. However, if memory is not enough and hard disk virtual
memory is frequently used, the compilation time will increase more.
Therefore, I think we could firstly satisfy the physical memory
requirement of Quartus II compilation and then try to upgrade CPU
speed.

Multi processor system or multi-thread CPU will help you run other
applications at the same time as running the Quartus II compile, but
not necessarily will help with the compile time.

Quartus II can support 64 bit system. Generally, 64 bit Quartus II can
run faster than 32 bit if memory is adequately large (> 2G). However,
the performance upgrade is dependent on specific design project and we
can't provide detailed benchmark.

64-bit Quartus II version 6.0 can be installed in UNIX Workstations
(64-bit) (Solaris 8 and 9 only) or Linux Workstations (64-bit
AMD64/EM64T processors) (Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3.0/4.0 WS 64-bit for
AMD64/EM64T only).
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Q:
when will quartus be certified as being windows vista compatible, and
is a 64 bit windows/vista version planned?

secondly, with the rise of multicore and multiprocessor systems,
is work being done to parallelize the algorithms for synthesis and
place and
route in order to achieve speed benefits available through
multiprocessor systems as they become the norm in the PC market.

A:
I can't provide the exact schedule about Quartus II certification on
Windows Vista. It's also due to the maturity of the OS. However,
Altera software surely can support those operations systems if they are
popular.

Our roadmap for Quartus II software also includes multi thread or
multiprocessor system support. However, the release schedule is also
not determined by now. But it might be no later than the end of next
year. Thanks for your understanding.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

[avishay]

Hi wallge,
I'm dealing with this issue for some time, and after making some tests,
I've arrived to several conclusions:
* With reasonable amount of memory (1G), the main limiting factor is
the CPU power
* CPUs with larger caches seem to have some impact on the running time
* Fast memory has very small, if any, impact on the running time
* Multithreaded CPU are not utilized by Quartus, but you can run two
instances independently on different partitions of the design, and
increase overall speed that way.

Avishay.

 

[wallge]

Quartus II Software Version 6.1 Features and Enhancements

Quartus II software version 6.1 includes software support for
Altera's new Stratix III devices as well as its other CPLD, FPGA and
structured ASIC families. Additional highlights of the performance and
productivity enhancements include:

* Multiprocessor support: Allowing parallel processing during
compilation for computers with multiple processors results in a
reduction in compile times. Quartus II software offers the first
multiprocessor support from an FPGA vendor to take advantage of the new
multiple-core processors.
* Detachable windows support: Quartus II software GUI users can now
move various tool windows independently around their desktop, allowing
easier design analysis and management.
* Chip Planner: A new integrated floorplanner and chip editor
provides detailed design floorplan analysis and engineering change
order (ECO)-editing capability.
* Advanced I/O timing: Allowing designers to enter board trace
parameters in Quartus II software results in more accurate I/O analysis
and faster timing closure.
* Pin planning enhancements: Automatic creation of a top-level
design file from the pin planner results in more thorough I/O analysis
and accelerated board design.
* Windows 64-bit version: Quartus II software 64-bit version
running on Microsoft Windows XP Professional x64 allows designers to
take advantage of computers with more than 4 Gbytes of memory.
* Expanded Linux support: Quartus II softwareincludes SUSE Linux
Enterprise 9 support in addition to Red Hat Enterprise Linux.