Why is Signal Probe not supported for Arria 10 in Quartus Standard?

[SZack]

All other product families supported by Quartus Standard can use Signal Probe. Also the 18.1 Quartus Standard User Guide says "The Signal Probe feature supports the Arria series, Cyclone series, MAX II, and Stratix series device families."

[sstrell]

I would broadly interpret that as older Arria device families: Arria, Arria II, Arria V.

I didn't realize that SP doesn't work with A10 in Standard.

#iwork4intel

[SZack]

Hi Steve, I don’t know if that’s a bug but I can’t blame the customer for expecting Signal Probe to work with Arria 10 based on what the documentation says. For all the products it just says Cyclone, MAX , Arria so it’s fair to say the expectation when using Quartus Standard would be that it applies to every Arria, every MAX and every Cyclone device. Maybe the documentation should get fixed to make this clear? Also, when I use Signal Probe in Quartus Pro they changed the way it’s implemented – it’s like your instantiating IP to use this feature. I think this is a lot clunkier way to use Signal Probe. Whoever decided to change this interface should be demoted 😊

[sstrell]

Are we talking about the same thing? SP in Pro is the same (incremental routing through Rapid Recompile) except that there's currently no GUI (no Signal Probe IP):

https://www.intel.com/content/dam/www/programmable/us/en/pdfs/literature/ug/ug-qpp-debug.pdf

As for SP with A10 in Standard, yes, probably the document should make it clear.

#iwork4intel

[SZack]

In Standard, there was a simple GUI where you specified what signal(s) you wanted routed out to a pin and then what pin(s) to connect them to. That interface is gone in Pro.

[Kenny_Tan]

Can you provide a screenshot of that interface? I will let you know the status.

[SZack]

Hi Kenny, Here is a screenshot of what I see when using Quartus Standard 19.1 with Arria 10. [cid:image001.png@01D601B3.545049D0] Steve

[Kenny_Tan]

When I click on the link, nothing appear. Can you attached a again the screenshot?

[SZack]

Here you go Kenny

[Kenny_Tan]

After checking:

On Quartus Prime standard, Signal Probe support is built upon Rapid Recompile feature. For Quartus Standard version, Rapid Recompile is only supported for Stratix V, Arria V and Cyclone V devices as you can see on the following comparison table between software editions.

As Rapid Recompile is not enabled for Arria 10 family on Quartus Prime standard.

Any reason that you like to use this feature? What I can do is submit an enhancement to the developer to bring back this feature. But it will be on the Pro edition of Quartus as our developer are now focusing much on the Pro ediiton development.

[SZack]

Hi Kenny, Because of these limitations in Quartus Standard I’ve convinced the customer to switch to the Pro version. It’s just that the documentation in the handbook was misleading because it says Signal Probe is available for all Arria devices – it didn’t mention the caveat about Arria 10. As an fyi, I personally think the implementation in Pro is not as good as in Standard. It’s much more intuitive in the Standard version. I don’t see what the advantage is to the Pro implementation. Thanks and be well, Steve

[Kenny_Tan]

Depending on what requirement you have. you can look into the https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/programmable/documentation/spj1513986956763.html -> 1.1. Selecting an Intel Quartus Prime Software Edition

However, as mention, the engineering will focus most of the development now in pro ediiton. Unless the issue is critical, the engineering will not prioritize on that.

For the documentation, are you referring to the https://www.intel.com/content/dam/www/programmable/us/en/pdfs/literature/hb/qts/qts_qii53008.pdf. Let me know if I got the incorrect link.

[SZack]

Thanks Kenny. This is certainly not a critical issue. Cleaning up the documentation will at least avoid a customer wondering why it doesn’t work.