Releases#

The HDL is released as git branches bi-annually. The release branches are created first and then tested before being made official. That is, the existence of a branch does not mean it is a fully tested release.

Also, the release branch is tested only on certain versions of the tools and may not work with other versions of the tools. The projects that are tested and supported in a release branch are listed along with the ADI library cores that are used.

The release branch may contain other projects that are in development; one must assume these are not tested, therefore not supported by this release.

Porting a release branch to another Tool version#

It is possible to port a release branch to another tool version, though not recommended. The ADI libraries should work across different versions of the tools, but the projects may not. The issues are most likely with the Intel and AMD Xilinx cores. If you must still do this, note the following:

First, disable the version check of the scripts.

The ADI build scripts are making sure that the releases are being run on the validated tool version. It will promptly notify the user if he or she trying to use an unsupported version of tools. You need to disable this check by setting the environment variable ADI_IGNORE_VERSION_CHECK.

Second, make Intel and AMD IP cores version change.

The Intel projects should automatically be changed by Quartus. The Vivado projects are a bit tricky. The GUI automatically updates the cores, but the Tcl flow does not.

Thus, it may be easier to create the project file with the supported version first, then opening it with the new version. After which, update the Tcl scripts accordingly.

The versions are specified in the following format.

add_instance sys_cpu altera_nios2_gen2 16.0
set sys_mb [create_bd_cell -type ip -vlnv xilinx.com:ip:microblaze:9.5 sys_mb]

You should now be able to build the design and test things out. In most cases, it should work without much effort. If it doesn’t, do an incremental update and debug accordingly.

Release branches#

Releases	Intel	AMD Xilinx	Release notes	List of supported projects and IP cores
main	Quartus Pro 23.2	Vivado 2023.1
hdl_2021_r2	Quartus Pro 21.4	Vivado 2021.2	Release notes 2021_R2	Wiki list for hdl_2021_r2
hdl_2021_r1	Quartus Pro 21.2	Vivado 2021.1	Release notes 2021_R1	Wiki list for hdl_2021_r1
hdl_2019_r2	Quartus Pro 19.3	Vivado 2019.1	Release notes 2019_R2	Wiki list for hdl_2019_r2
hdl_2019_r1	Quartus Pro 18.1	Vivado 2018.3	Release notes 2019_R1	Wiki list for hdl_2019_r1
hdl_2018_r2	Quartus Pro 18.0	Vivado 2018.2	Release notes 2018_R2	Wiki list for hdl_2018_r2
hdl_2018_r1	Quartus Pro 17.1.1	Vivado 2017.4.1	Release notes 2018_R1	Wiki list for hdl_2018_r1
hdl_2017_r1	Quartus Pro 16.1	Vivado 2016.4	Release notes 2017_R1	Wiki list for hdl_2017_r1
hdl_2016_r2	Quartus Pro 16.0	Vivado 2016.2	Release notes 2016_R2	Wiki list for hdl_2016_r2
hdl_2016_r1	Quartus Pro 15.1	Vivado 2015.4.2	Release notes 2016_R1	Wiki list for hdl_2016_r1
hdl_2015_r2	Quartus Pro 15.0.2	Vivado 2015.2	Release notes 2015_R2	Wiki list for hdl_2015_r2
hdl_2015_r1	Quartus Pro 14.1	Vivado 2014.4.1	Release notes 2015_R1	Wiki list for hdl_2015_r1
hdl_2014_r2	Quartus Pro 14.0	Vivado 2014.2	Release notes 2014_R2	Wiki list for hdl_2014_r2
hdl_2014_r1	Quartus Pro 14.0	Vivado 2013.4	Release notes 2014_R1	Wiki list for hdl_2014_r1

About the tools we use#

When Intel or AMD have a new release, we usually follow them and update our tools in a timely manner.

Changing the version of tool used on a branch is done by updating the git-hdl:adi_env.tcl <scripts/adi_env.tcl> script.

If the tool version is not the one you want to use, keep in mind that when making a setup, you will have to build the software files with the same version, otherwise you might encounter problems in your setup.

For example, you want to use an older version of Vivado on the main branch which uses a newer one. Then you will need to manually build the software files from the main branch, with the same version of Vitis too. Or for Linux, to use the proper version of CROSS_COMPILE, etc.