Altera Quartus 13 dockerized

Files in this repository allow for running Quartus 13.0 Service Pack 1 in a Docker container. Why would anyone want to run such an old release? It was the last version to support Cyclone FPGAs, as well as MAX7000 families and compatible ATF150x CPLDs from Atmel/Microchip (which is exactly my use case, it's probably the last 5V CPLD family still manufactured).

If you encounter any further issues or have any improvement ideas, submit an issue or pull request.

Important notes

• the resulting Docker image is big - 20.6GB on my PC.

• it needs X11, no Wayland, sorry!

• Docker image uses Ubuntu 14.04.6 LTS as its base image. Anything newer caused more problems for me.

• gate-level simulation under ModelSim doesn't work out of the box for some reason. It loads my test design (for MAX7032S), but complains about missing max_io and max_mcell components (which are parts of max_ver simulation library):

  # ** Error: (vsim-3033) addr_dec_io.vo(387): Instantiation of 'max_io' failed. The design unit was not found.
  #         Region: /addr_dec_io
  #         Searched libraries:
  #             /home/czajnik/work/e800j_rev/addr_dec/io/simulation/modelsim/gate_work

  However, if I try to start the simulation manually like this, everything works as expected:

  ModelSim> vsim -L max_ver gate_work.addr_dec_io
  # vsim -L max_ver gate_work.addr_dec_io 
  # Loading gate_work.addr_dec_io
  # Loading max_ver.max_io
  # Loading max_ver.max_asynch_io
  # Loading max_ver.max_mcell
  # Loading max_ver.max_asynch_mcell
  # Loading max_ver.max_mcell_register
  # SDF 10.1d Compiler 2012.11 Nov  2 2012
  # Loading instances from addr_dec_io_v.sdo
  # Loading timing data from addr_dec_io_v.sdo
  # ** Note: (vsim-3587) SDF Backannotation Successfully Completed.
  #    Time: 0 ps  Iteration: 0  Instance: /addr_dec_io File: addr_dec_io.vo

  I don't know why it doesn't work by default, and I have better things to do with my life than digging through the TCL scripts. If you know how to fix it, let me know.

• programming tool successfully opened my USB Blaster clone, but I'm yet to try to actually program any part. Note: you may need to tweak device permissions with proper udev rules.

Building the Docker image

How to build the image:

• download Quartus-web-13.0.1.232-linux.tar file from Intel into this directory

  $ sha1sum Quartus-web-13.0.1.232-linux.tar
  2b110eff0d544bcda4013e265f6feaa507482357  Quartus-web-13.0.1.232-linux.tar

• you may also try Quartus 13.1, but it was not my focus, so it's not fully tested

  $ sha1sum Quartus-web-13.1.0.162-linux.tar 
  52dc519e7bd061b5e5fdcc537241b0f7983f2558  Quartus-web-13.1.0.162-linux.tar

  You also need to uncomment the right line in build.sh:

  # Select 13.0 or 13.1 here
  TARBALL=Quartus-web-13.0.1.232-linux.tar
  #TARBALL=Quartus-web-13.1.0.162-linux.tar

• build the container image (default tag: quartus:13) with:

  $ ./build.sh

Running it

See bin for scripts:

• q13_spawn starts a container named quartus13 (you can override it via CONTAINER_NAME env variable) and executes whatever command is given as argument.

  • you can use it to directly execute any Quartus tool in a container, e.g. Quartus State Machine Editor:

  $ ./bin/q13_spawn qsme

  • it runs with current user's UID /GID and mounts user's home directory, so you can feel at home, literally :)

  • the container is started in the background (-d) and removed after exit (--rm). In case of any troubles, it might be useful to remove --rm temporarily (e.g. to check the logs).

• quartus script is a 1-liner calling q13_spawn quartus to start the main Quartus GUI.

• vsim scripts starts a ModelSim (Altera Starter Edition) session.