Electronic – Improve Quartus partial compile or recompile time

fpgaintel-fpgaquartus

I run Altera Quartus, and I'm using the SignalTap logic analyzer on a Max 10 FPGA. It takes tens of minutes to compile, and every time I'd like to add a signal to SignalTap, I have to compile again. The rapid-recompile button is always grayed out, I don't even know what it does, I've never had the option. A lot of times, I'm not changing my design just SignalTap, but Quartus wants to recompile everything which seems like a waste of time. Is there a way speed up the compile time (or changes to only apply to SignalTap)? Using Quartus 15.1

Best Answer

I've listed some useful flags to make Quartus synthesize faster if you don't care about fully optimizing your results:

set_global_assignment  -name PHYSICAL_SYNTHESIS_EFFORT  FAST

Specifies the amount of effort, in terms of compile time, physical synthesis should use. Fast uses less compile time but may reduce the performance gain that physical synthesis is able to achieve.

set_global_assignment  -name FITTER_EFFORT              FAST_FIT

Fast Fit decreases optimization effort to reduce compilation time, which may degrade design performance.

set_global_assignment  -name SYNTHESIS_EFFORT           FAST

Note that this has the caveat below, although I tend to see overall faster runs.

When set to Fast, some steps are omitted to accomplish synthesis more quickly; however, there may be some performance and resource cost. Altera recommends setting this option to Fast only when running an early timing estimate. Running a "fast" synthesis produces a netlist that is slightly harder for the Fitter to route, thus making the overall fitting process slower, which negates any performance increases achieved as a result of the "fast" synthesis.

And instead of 

execute_flow -compile

Use:

execute_flow -implement

Option to run compilation up to route stage and skipping all time intensive algorithms after.

In a meeting with Intel/Altera engineers, using -implement this was ball-parked to be about 20% faster than -compile, and came recommended when iterating on timing-closure results.

If anyone has other recommended, please edit this comment so we can develop a list.

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