Menu:
- Where to look for the maximum clock frequency at which the design operates?
Within the TimeQuest Timing Analyzer folder, look inside the "slow model" folder for "Fmax Summary". This is the maximum frequency at which the design runs. The reciprocal of Fmax is the minimum clock period. - Where are the area and timing reports?
Along with the information presented on the GUI, Quartus also generates a number of report and summary files within your project directory. Specifically look for "module_name.flow" file (rpt file) for information about area and "module_name.sta" file (rpt file) for information about timing. "module_name.map" file gives the post synthesis area numbers which are slightly less than the area after fitting. "module_name" is the name of the module you are working on. - How to measure total delay?
Delay = clock_period*#clock_cycles. The clock period can be obtained from Fmax. #cycles is the number of positive clock edges between the "begin" and "done" signals. Use modelsim waveforms or modify the testbench to count the number of cycles. - How to save modelsim transcript and waveforms?
After you run the "run -all" command, you can save your transcript by going to the "File" menu and clicking on "save transcript as". Please email your transcript files from next project onwards (wep). Transcript file will contain the history of all commands used in the current modelsim session. You can clear the current transcript by going to the "Transcript" menu on the GUI and clicking "Clear". Please send me the transcript of the working design and not the entire history!!For saving the waveform, export the waveform as a bitmap image.
- How to figure out the critical path in the design?
After compiling the design, click on the Timequest Timing Analyzer icon in the task pane to open up the Timing analyzer's GUI. Within the GUI, there is a macro named "Report Top Failing Paths" that shows the end-points of the top 200 paths with the most negative slack.