What Customers Are Saying About Quartus II Software
Motorola
"I have been a long time Xilinx user, but I began using Altera® Cyclone® FPGAs and Quartus® II software for my Keystone project developing a high-definition video decoder for commercial broadcast applications. I am particularly impressed with how well the entire Quartus II package, including Verilog synthesis, ModelSim® verification, and compilation, runs on a low-end PC. Quartus II software also allows me to easily combine schematics, hardware description language (HDL), and megafunctions in a single hierarchical design, which I can’t do in Xilinx tools. The quality of synthesis results from Quartus II software is also quite high, rivaling the results I have seen from synthesis tools I have used. Even though Quartus II software is very simple to use, I would strongly recommend it for both advanced and beginning designers. Altera's Quartus II software is such a superior development environment that I am quickly forgetting about any other PLD design tool."
Can Nguyen
Principal Staff Engineer
Broadband Communications Sector
Tektronix
"We’ve used Altera's Quartus II software to help develop a Stratix® FPGA-based design for the WVR7100 Digital and Composite Waveform Rasterizer, a product that requires high performance for the confidence monitoring of high-definition, standard-definition, and composite video signals. The LogicLockTM tool in Quartus II software enabled us to achieve an internal clock rate of over 125 MHz in a large and complicated Stratix design using the slowest speed grade device. The LogicLock tool is the most powerful and easy-to-use fitting and timing closure tool I’ve seen for programmable logic design."
Ken Ivers
Principal Engineer
Harman Music Group
"Quartus II software is the most advanced PLD design software I have used, and it is years ahead of the competition. I have been using programmable logic since the early days of Palasm, and have since used both Altera's MAX+PLUS® II software and Xilinx tools to develop PLDs for professional audio equipment. Most recently I have designed several large Xilinx FPGAs, but for my next project, I am happily returning to Altera's tools. Quartus II software offers much better ease-of-use, and a terrific development environment for the Nios® embedded processor."
Carlos Morales
Hardware Designer
STS Technologies
"I have developed programmable logic device designs for the last decade. During that time, I’ve used tools from both Xilinx and Altera. Altera’s Quartus II software excels from the very start: it installs quickly, licenses quickly, and works well. Quartus II software just comes up, unlike Xilinx ISE, which is a nightmare to install and use. Quartus II software also includes everything you need to complete your design. That’s not the case with Xilinx ISE tools, which require you to call up many other tools to get the job done.
The synthesis in Quartus II has performed well for everything I’ve ever needed to do, but when I work with Xilinx, it’s pretty much a given that I’ll have to use a third-party synthesis tool. Using a third-party synthesis tool prevents me from using the Chipscope verification tool in ISE, which is imperative for debugging complex designs, so I feel like with Xilinx I’m done before I even got started. On the other hand, the SignalTap® verification tool in Quartus II software works great, and is a great asset in helping me stabilize my designs. Likewise, the LogicLock capability in Quartus II software is amazing in helping me allocate and manage resource utilization in my Altera designs."
Scott Chaney
President
Honeywell International
"The LogicLock feature in Quartus II software makes it easier to achieve your required performance. In my latest design, I was able to lock in critical timing areas early in development, allowing me to proceed with confidence knowing that I would meet speed requirements in the final design."
Stan Hodge
Senior Design Engineer
Moving Pixel
"I have used devices from both Altera and Xilinx, and Altera's Quartus II software is the most complete and well-integrated tool for developing programmable logic designs I have ever experienced. Its powerful integrated synthesis feature is a great asset in getting designs done quickly and efficiently. I have most recently used Quartus II software to develop Stratix II and Cyclone designs for the High Dynamic Range (HDR) display. Stratix II FPGAs deliver the high-performance digital signal processing (DSP) functions needed to produce the most crisp and detailed visuals, and Cyclone series FPGAs provide the lowest cost, broadening the appeal of this leading-edge display technology."
Scott Silver
Principal Engineer
Covaro Networks, Inc.
"I have used Lattice tools with their ispMACH 4000 parts, but I found Quartus II software and Cyclone FPGAs to be a better combination. Using Quartus II software with Cyclone FPGAs provides more speed, more logic and memory resources, and a very quick and easily learned design flow. Quartus II software is especially good at making that device speed achievable with minimal effort. I recently converted a Lattice design to an Altera Cyclone FPGA with Quartus II software, and after only a few mouse clicks, I had nearly doubled my speed compared to the Lattice device while achieving a nearly 2x cost reduction."
Matt Vea
Hardware Engineer
Talia Sound & Vision
"With historical experience with a range of FPGA products, we have been impressed by the quality and functionality of the Altera tools and FPGAs, overcoming many of the frustrations experienced with other products. Currently we are designing a range of standard definition (SD) and high-definition television (HDTV) video processing products for the broadcast industry. After careful consideration of the competition, we found both the Stratix and Cyclone FPGAs, both based on a 0.13-micron, all-copper process parts, to be the only product capable of sustaining the high speeds that our designs require.
We found Quartus II software to be simpler, more powerful, easier, and faster than other FPGA tools—an advantage in helping us bring our products to market more quickly. Quartus II software's fully integrated design approach is intuitive. The MegaWizard® Plug-In Manager integrated into Quartus II software is excellent, making it very easy to add FPGA-specific blocks such as phase-locked loops (PLLs), digital signal processors, and memory to my designs in no time at all.
As the size and complexity of the design increase, the maximum speed of the Altera products remains consistent with the stated specifications, unlike some other FPGAs we have tested. In fact, the Stratix multiplier specification of 250 MHz has been proven and exceeded, when we managed to push an 18x18 multiplier past the 300 MHz mark. We have had trouble breaking the 100-MHz barrier in other FPGAs. We greatly appreciate the accuracy of Altera's data sheets and the performance of their FPGAs."
Joe Talia
President
Lumagen
"We have been Xilinx users, but for our most recent home theater processor products, we chose Altera's Cyclone FPGAs for their clear price/performance advantage. We were pleasantly surprised to discover that Altera's Quartus II software provided a better Verilog development flow than Xilinx's tools as well. In addition, applying constraints to our design was much easier with Quartus II software."
Patrick Harkin
Vice President of Development
Alesis
"I first used Altera FPGAs for the design of Alesis' HD24 multi-track digital audio hard disk recorder. The Altera solution had the right combination of price, performance, logic density, and I/O to allow us to achieve the feature set we needed at the lowest price point in the industry for the product category. Since then, we have expanded our use of Altera devices into our Ion and Micron audio synthesizers.
In our most recent project, we required even more speed, density, and I/O, and Cyclone devices have been the perfect fit. I am very impressed by the flexibility of Cyclone devices, particularly with the ability to assign current drive strengths on a per-pin basis and support for different I/O standards, which is immensely valuable in providing the kind of system integration we expect from an FPGA.
Additionally, Quartus II software offers great advances over MAX+PLUS II software in terms of quality of results and timing closure features. Quartus II software updates have steadily improved the quality of the tools, shortening compile times and helping me to get the most out of our chosen Altera devices. In particular, both the simulation and timing closure features in Quartus II software have helped me to reduce design time while increasing my confidence in the design performance."
Robert F. Schmanski
Design Engineer
Parthus Ceva
"I have used various FPGA devices over many years, including offerings from Lattice and Xilinx, but the Altera Cyclone family has superior performance and an excellent price position which made my last project the easiest and most successful yet. The Quartus II development tool's ease of installation, stability, and functionality made the implementation of my Cyclone project fast and painless. Altera's Cyclone devices and Quartus II tools are such an unbeatable combination that my last project beat both its time-to-market and budgetary targets by over 30 percent. The continual advances made in Quartus II software mean that my future designs can always remain on the leading edge. The ability to mix design input methods and the unsurpassed compilation speed means that both the front-end preparation and back-end processing outperforms even the latest offerings from Xilinx. The lifeblood of this company is the creation of intellectual property (IP) and its implementation in DSP cores. Without the power and flexibility of the Altera offerings, we could not have succeeded in the creation and proving of our Bluetooth, 802.11, and GPS product offerings. There simply is no better toolset or silicon solution than Altera's offering for my increasingly complex and time-critical designs."
Martin Hall
Senior Hardware Engineer
Doremi Labs
"Doremi has relied exclusively on Altera FPGAs to implement our high bandwidth video products. Although we have been using a third-party synthesis tool, since Quartus II software version 2.0, we have had great success using the built-in Quartus II synthesizer. We have also used the LogicLock feature in every design that exceeds 100,000 gates. The LogicLock feature has enabled us to design, debug, meet timing, and lock down every major block of the design, and subsequently reduce compile time and interference across design blocks."
Camille Rizko
Technical Director
Sigma Instruments
“I have used programmable logic for many years to develop products for measurement and control of vacuum processes, such as film deposition and monitoring. In the past, I used the MAX+PLUS and MAX+PLUS II software, but today I rely strictly on Quartus II software for all of my development. One of the great advantages of moving from MAX+PLUS II software to Quartus II software is the improved synthesis and resource utilization efficiency we see in Altera’s latest development software. We had used third-party synthesis tools in the past, but the great results we get with Quartus II software have caused us to drop them. Also, the compilation speeds are very good—with Quartus II software, I can compile a 3,000 logic cell Cyclone design in less than four minutes using a $400 PC. I have used Cyclone FPGAs and the Nios processor in several of my projects, most recently with our EM-100D Optical Emission Monitor. The combination of Altera FPGAs, the Nios processor, and the Quartus II tools allows me to easily achieve unprecedented levels of integration in our products.”
George Diehl
Engineering Manager
Acorn Packet Solutions
"I have used both Xilinx and Altera products during my 20 years as a communications system designer. I used to be a fervent Xilinx supporter, but once I started using Altera products, I have used them exclusively and not looked back. In my current work on IP network connection and monitoring products, the combination of Altera's software tools and devices have consistently given me superb performance and results. The capabilities of Quartus II software are a distinguishing factor. For example, Altera integrates high-quality HDL synthesis into Quartus II software that delivers very efficient utilization. Also, the amount and organization of compilation results are excellent; resource utilization is right there, so you can easily see where improvements can be made. The integration between report messages, source files, and the floorplanner is second to none, making problem resolution very quick. Constraints are easy to add, and also to fix when they are not met. Finally, the help menus are the most complete of any product I have ever used. It is amazing to me that Altera gives all of this away free in their Quartus II Web Edition software."
Mike Skerrit
CTO & Founder
SKB Prominform
“My firm has over 10 years of experience in the development of wireline telephony products. For most of that time, we were exclusively Xilinx customers, but recently we decided to try Altera’s products in our new Universal Digital Platform product. We used Quartus II Web Edition software to develop MAX® CPLD designs and found it much more intuitive and easy to use than Xilinx ISE tools. Quartus II software is a very well thought-out development environment, so much so that we practically did not have to refer to the user guide to use it. Based on our positive experience and the better value that Altera devices deliver, we will be using Altera for our projects going forward.”
Golovatenko Andrey
Senior Engineer
Escape Communications
"At Escape, we've been using Quartus II software and Cyclone FPGAs to build leading-edge signal processing products at ASIC-killer prices. Quartus II software is a well-integrated tool that yields impressive synthesis results, and the floor-planning and place-and-route tools consistently allow us to reach greater-than-90 percent utilization while meeting challenging timing constraints. We have come to rely on the detailed Resource Usage Summary in Quartus II software to rapidly identify portions of our designs requiring further attention. While Quartus II software makes this critical information easily available with a single step, other programmable logic tools require multiple compilation iterations to extract it. Quartus II software is superior compared to other programmable logic tool offerings and allows us to focus our time on meeting customer needs, rather than laboring over tool usage."
Dr. Greg Caso
Vice President, Engineering
CalAmp
"I have been a long-time user of Altera products for many different applications. Using Altera's tools, like Quartus II software, is a snap, and when a design works okay in simulation, I know that the Altera device will work, too.
Unfortunately, I have also had to work with Xilinx tools and devices. We have had trouble reaching our performance targets with Xilinx devices because of the confusing way they specify their devices. I find Xilinx especially hard to work with because of the poor performance of the tools. After recently going through the trouble of updating to the latest Xilinx tools with installations and multiple reboots, I found that I had lost some capabilities that I had before. Xilinx tech support was absolutely no help whatsoever. Altera updates and support are much better by comparison.
One of my more challenging designs required some fairly hefty formatting and encoding for custom serial data channels for magnetic recording, and as usual, the Altera tools worked well and the design worked right away as expected. Many of our designs are portable, so they require low power consumption, and I look forward to using MAX II CPLDs to better address that need."
Robyn Baur
Senior Hardware Engineer
Ulyssix Technologies
"I have been designing FPGAs and ASICs since 1989, with experience using products from several programmable logic vendors. In 1999, I was tasked to move my DSP intellectual properties from standard cell ASICs to FPGAs and I chose Altera as the superior solution because of their parallel-processing speed capability and the ease with which I could implement mathematical algorithms (i.e., parallel multipliers and dividers) using the MegaWizard plug-ins within their development environment. Based on the capabilities of the Altera product families and the support I received from them, I decided to start my own company focused on providing DSP-oriented telemetry products.
I am currently using Quartus II software and DSP Builder tool with Stratix devices to take my company to the next level of capability. Quartus II software provides much better synthesis and place-and-route capabilities than the MAX+PLUS II software, and their DSP Builder tool is a very solid and capable tool for quickly implementing DSP functions. Further, the SignalTap function in Quartus II software is "magic" for allowing me to do an unprecedented amount of in-circuit debugging of my circuit designs. These design environment advances combined with the innovative DSP blocks in the Stratix family have taken Ulyssix’s designs to a much higher level than its competition, which is using mixed analog/digital solutions.
I have now completed three different telemetry application products within six months using the combination of MATLAB, the DSP Builder tool, and Quartus II software, using the same PC board. The ability to reconfigure the same PC board for very different applications is enabling Ulyssix Technologies, Inc. to become a leader in PCI solutions for the telemetry marketplace."
Glenn Rosenthal
President
Wytron
"I have been using programmable logic since the early days of Palasm, and have since used tools from both Altera and Xilinx. Altera’s Quartus II software is the most advanced PLD design software I have ever used, and it is years ahead of the competition. Quartus II software offers much better ease-of-use and a terrific development environment for the Nios processor in the form of the SOPC Builder tool. We have relied on Quartus II software to develop Cyclone device designs for our DVD-199V duplicator product, and we plan to continue to use Altera solutions, including the Nios II processor, for our future products as well.”
Thomas Chou
General Manager
Electronics Consulting Services
“I have used Altera and Xilinx to develop many types of designs, including a digital video recorder, a point-to-point microwave modem, and an National Television System Committee (NTSC) video signal manipulator. Current FPGA-based projects include a toy with audio/video recognition capability, and a wireless video surveillance product. In my last project I used Xilinx FPGAs, but for my new projects I am returning to Altera because only they enable me to seamlessly transition from programmable logic to low-cost structured ASICs with minimal risk. Achieving the lowest cost is important to my customers, many of whom are consumer product manufacturers, and Altera’s Stratix FPGAs and HardCopy® structured ASICs enable me to reach that goal. In addition, Altera’s Quartus II software offers the LogicLock feature and the SignalTap II logic analyzer, which are much better timing closure and verification tools than what is available from Xilinx. Finally, Altera's customer support is superior to Xilinx's, and makes working with Altera's products a more pleasant experience.”
Richard Ivy
Consulting Engineer
PnP3 Electronics
“Over the past seven years, I have designed more than 30 CPLD and FPGA applications, ranging from the complex (radar simulation equipment and Internet video cameras) to simple (stepper motor control and CPU glue logic) using both Altera and Xilinx products. When I have the choice, I always use Altera simply because Quartus II software is the best PLD development tool. With its fully integrated environment, including simulation, Altera’s Quartus II IDE gets me from concept to prototype faster than any other software available. In one particular application where I was designing a real-time geometric calculator, I was fumbling around for four or five days trying to figure out why the hardware wasn’t working properly. I decided to try the SignalTap logic analyzer tool in Quartus II software, and in just a few hours, I tracked down the problem, fixed the code, did a recompile, reprogrammed the device, and it worked perfectly. Xilinx tools have never performed as well as that for me, and it was that moment when I decided that Quartus II software was the way to go.”
Kris Sielski
Design Engineer
Penguin Telecom
"I have used Quartus II software to develop Cyclone series designs for Cluster 5 of the Joint Tactical Radio System program. Quartus II software enables me to bring up designs much more quickly than other PLD tools. The Design Assistant catches errors early in the development flow that would take much longer to solve during simulation, which shortens my development cycle. Also, the Design Space Explorer is better than competing tools at enabling me to achieve my performance targets in a short amount of time. The wireless handheld designs I am working on are extremely space-constrained, so they don’t have the room for traditional external probe debug methods. The Quartus II software's SignalTap II embedded logic analyzer solves that problem and adds the ability to look at internal signals in the FPGA running at full speed."
Brian D. Carlton
President
EZAN RAS
“I have used PLDs from Altera and Xilinx. I have found Altera’s Quartus II software to be much easier to learn and use than Xilinx’s tools. Quartus II software also enables faster design development than Xilinx ISE. The LogicLock feature, the floorplanner, and the verification tools in Quartus II software are especially important in shortening our development time. For our ENE-04 Multiplexer, designed for use with synchronous digital hierarchy (SDH) equipment for optical networks, we chose Cyclone FPGAs and the Nios II processor. We had past experience using Xilinx Spartan devices and their Microblaze processor, but the Nios II product is a much better processor, and our development went very smoothly and quickly as a result. Altera provides us with excellent tools, high-value devices, and a superior embedded processor offering, and I simply do not see the necessity to use products from any other programmable logic vendor.”
Pavel Lugovskoy
Development Group Head
Quintessence Technologies Corporation
"I am overwhelmed by the ease-of-use of Quartus II software compared to other programmable logic and EDA tools. Quartus II software is more reliable and user friendly than the MAX+PLUS II software, particularly in the areas of simulation, finding nodes, and making pin assignments. Also, the graphic stimulus creator is significantly faster and more efficient than similar tools from third parties. Converting my designs has been very simple, and I have achieved fits into target devices in very short amounts of time. Finally, the Quartus II user guide is easy to navigate, making it easy for me to find answers to my questions."
Hussein Moradi
President
Odyssey Technologies
"I first made the switch to Altera FPGAs because they were the first programmable logic supplier to implement embedded blocks of RAMs, and since then they have always been the first to deliver the FPGA features that my designs required. In addition to providing the most advanced FPGA features, Altera is also on the leading edge with their development tools, and as a result, Quartus II software is the most powerful and easy-to-use FPGA software on the planet. For example, Quartus II software provides a MegaWizard Plug-In Manager which makes it easy to instantiate RAM models in Verilog or VHDL. That's just one of the many ease-of-use features that make Quartus II software superior to Xilinx's ISE 6 software. Here at Odyssey, we specialize in the design and development of leading-edge sophisticated communications systems, and time-to-market is always critical, which is why we rely on Altera FPGAs and Quartus II software, because being second is just one step away from saying 'do you want fries with that burger?'"
Perry J. Brown
President
CalAmp
"I have been using MAX+PLUS II software since 1993 and have completed over 40 designs with Altera CPLDs and FPGAs. I have found Altera CPLDs very useful to design glue logic and DRAM controllers for processors. Once a leftover portion of an FPGA was used to implement the needed parts of a PCI bus to interface a graphic controller to a CPU. This allowed the PCI bridge chip to be removed from the design. I have implemented large designs doing real-time image corrections of images from high-speed cameras. The design required using over 10 CPLDs and FPGAs to meet the speed requirements of the system. I found it very easy to switch from MAX+PLUS II software to Quartus II software, which I now use for all of my new Altera designs.
Quartus II software updates have been very useful and trouble-free, and I have never had to revert to an older version to finish a design. One of the main reasons I moved to Quartus II software is its superior ability to deliver timing closure—it has been indispensable for my most difficult projects. On several occasions, I have used 100 percent of the logic resources in an Altera CPLD or FPGA while still meeting my speed requirements. I have used tools from other PLD vendors, including Xilinx, but find Quartus II software the easiest to use."
Bill Swanson
Principal Engineer
Measurements & Controls, Ltd.
"Currently, we are designing a range of telecom transmission products using Altera devices. The SOPC Builder feature is a great tool for integrating our IP, the Nios processor, and other system blocks into Cyclone FPGAs, which are an excellent fit for our needs. Compared to other FPGA tools, Quartus II software is simpler, much easier to use, and more powerful, which shortens our time-to-market. In particular, the SignalTap verification tool that is a part of Quartus II software is excellent, making it easy to do real-time debugging of our FPGA designs."
Rajaram Menon
Deputy General Manager
Design Services
"Over the last decade, I have used PLD tools from Altera, AMD, and Lattice, and only Altera's Quartus II software has been able to truly help me troubleshoot a design. In a recent design for an analytical X-ray system for scientific equipment, the SignalTap II feature in Quartus II software helped me quickly discover and resolve design problems that I couldn't uncover during simulation. The SignalTap feature is very easy to use and has the look and feel of a real logic analyzer. I will be hard-pressed to use any other design software unless it includes a similar feature."
Greg Wachter
Electronic Hardware Engineer
Ken Crocker Engineering
"Quartus II software gives me the power to solve tough engineering problems quickly and efficiently. As a consultant, my customers depend on me to provide reliable, robust solutions every time. I have used Xilinx tools, but I feel that the results obtained using Quartus II software are superior in nearly every regard, especially when achieving timing closure. I recommend Altera CPLDs and FPGAs along with the Quartus II tool set exclusively to my customers based on a successful track record of completing over 95 demanding designs on time, with quality, and on budget. Of those, at least 21 have been completed using Quartus II software.
These designs have helped advance the state-of-the-art in such varied fields as medical and biometric systems, low-noise, high-frame-rate charge-coupled device (CCD) cameras, and professional video networking such as video on demand (VoD) and long-haul transport. One of my current designs uses a Cyclone device running a Nios processor to control a CCD sensor clocked at over 10,000 fps. The design uses the LogicLock design flow to implement silicon delay lines, which provide programmable sub-nanosecond clock-edge adjustment. Another recent design uses the DSP blocks in a Stratix device to perform image analysis for an airborne object tracking system."
Ken Crocker
Principal Engineer & President
BlueArc Corporation
“Altera's FPGAs offer ASIC-like complexity and density and have enabled BlueArc to implement a groundbreaking file server architecture with world-leading performance. These advanced FPGAs require correspondingly advanced development tools. Altera's Quartus II software provides the right features to enable system designers to achieve ASIC development flow efficiency while benefiting from the flexibility of FPGAs. The tool command language (Tcl) interface that allows designers to integrate and control memory functions via scripting, unavailable in competitive programmable logic tools, is especially welcome."
Shmuel Shottan
Senior Vice President of Engineering
Motorola Global Telecom Solutions Sector
"The LogicLock feature in Quartus II software is a valuable tool for development of large-scale programmable logic designs. By using the LogicLock design flow with our designs, we have been able to reduce compile times significantly as well as achieve our clock frequency performance targets."
George Powley
Principal Staff Engineer
Echotek
"In the past, we spent a great amount of time optimizing designs to meet our high-performance requirements. With Quartus II software, we're easily meeting all of our timing requirements at the push of a button. Quartus II software enables me to do in one week what it took two weeks to accomplish in the competitor's tool."
Ed Richardson
Design Engineer
Lowrance Electronics, Inc.
"Quartus II software allows us to complete our FPGA designs in the shortest amount of time, which is key to getting our sonar, GPS, and mapping products to market quickly. Now that Quartus II software supports Linux, we enjoy significant productivity gains resulting from the combination of the greatest ease-of-use and an extremely stable, low-cost development environment."
Jeff Hanoch
Principal Design Engineer
The Appcon Group
"I have found Quartus II software to be extremely fast and reliable. In my recent projects. Quartus II software has been able to deliver my targeted fMAX clock frequencies in even the most complex of designs in the largest devices. As a systems design consultant, I have to keep abreast of the latest offerings from all PLD vendors, and none of the other programmable logic vendors can come close to what Altera offers."
Mark Leveto
Principal Engineer
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