* Question
Which EDA Simulators Are Supported by Quartus NativeLink Simulation?
* Answer
In the Intel Quartus Prime workflow, NativeLink is an integration mechanism that allows Quartus Prime to automatically launch and drive third-party EDA tools from within the Quartus environment. With NativeLink, you can connect external tools for tasks such as design entry/synthesis, physical synthesis, simulation, and generation of board-level output files, while Quartus automatically configures the relevant tool settings.
1) Third-Party Simulation Tools Supported via NativeLink (Most Common Use Case)
For RTL and gate-level simulation, Quartus Prime supports third-party simulators from these major EDA vendors: Aldec, Cadence, Siemens EDA, and Synopsys.
Typical supported simulators include:
- Siemens EDA: ModelSim / Questa (including Questa Intel FPGA Edition)
- Aldec: Active-HDL / Riviera-PRO
- Cadence: Xcelium
- Synopsys: VCS / VCS MX
2) What “Kinds” of EDA Tools NativeLink Can Invoke
From a workflow perspective, NativeLink is used to integrate EDA tools that support one or more of the following stages:
- Design entry / synthesis
- Physical synthesis
- Simulation
- Board-level output generation
3) Important Notes (Version/Edition Constraints)
- Quartus Prime Pro Edition does not support NativeLink simulation, so NativeLink-based simulation flows are typically associated with supported Standard/Lite workflows.
- The exact supported versions can vary by Quartus release, so the most accurate check is each Quartus version’s release notes (Intel also explicitly advises this).
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