Question

I’m automating programming and diagnostics for several PCBs with Cyclone II FPGA chips.
Ideally I’d like to program the chips using my own program, but I could settle for a command line script.
Is it possible to download a .pof file to a cyclone II without using the altera programmer? Are there open source solutions that uses usb-blaster?

Answer 1

All the tools in the Quartus II tool chain are accessible through the command-line, from the mapper (synthesis), fitter, timing-analysis, device programming…

For device programming the individual program to use is: quartus_pgm.

Here is a summary all of the command-line programs of the tool chain. You can also take a look at the “Programmer” section of the complete Quartus II manual.

Example usage :

quartus_pgm –c byteblasterII –m jtag –o bpv;design.pof