Is Transceiver Toolkit compatible with 8B10B encoder/decoder ?

[Altera_Forum]

Hi, 

 I want to test a transceiver link on a Stratix V GX SI Dev Board. Firstly, I have successfully run the altera design example "sv_4ch_32b_6445mbps" with Quartus II v13.0SP1. Then, I have modified the example, mainly by modifying the xcvr_custom_phy IP in QSys: - different data rate and clock - enabling 8B10B encoder/decoder - adjusting the word alignment pattern accordingly...  I have successfully re-generated the design in QSys and then re-compiled the design in Quartus.  Then I have tested the modified design with the toolkit, I have obtained the following results: - The Tx transceiver seems to run correctly - For the Rx transceiver, the indicator "RX CDR locked to data" is green but the Receiver Channel remains in Yellow with the following indication: "TOOLTIP_STATUS_RECEIVER_CHECKING_BUT_NOT_LOCKED". .. The behaviour is similar with and without the check of option "enable word aligner".  By looking for a solution, I have read again the chapter 11 of the Altera document "http://www.altera.com/literature/hb/qts/qts_qii5v3.pdf". In the table 11-4 page 220, IP core configuration is provided. For the Custom PHY, the following configuration is indicated: -Set lanes, group size, serialization factor, data rate, and input clock frequency to match your application. -Turn on Avalon data interfaces -disable 8b/10b -Set Word alignment mode to manual -Disable rate match FIFO -Disable byte ordering block  Based on this information, should we conclude that it is not possible to use 8B10B with the Transceiver Toolkit ?  Thanks in advance for your help! Best Regards Mike

[Altera_Forum]

Hello, 

if I am experiencing the same problem and I have reached the same conclusion, am I doing something wrong? I am using a Cyclone V so I am not looking at eye diagrams, just link ber. Thanks in advance

[Altera_Forum]

--- Quote Start ---  Hello, if I am experiencing the same problem and I have reached the same conclusion, am I doing something wrong? I am using a Cyclone V so I am not looking at eye diagrams, just link ber. Thanks in advance  --- Quote End ---    Hi, I made this post a long time ago and now I'm working on different subject... so it is difficult to remember...  As far as I remember, 8B10B is problematic for Transceiver Toolkit. However, I may found a functional test configuration using the "serial bit comparator" mode...   Sorry for this poor support...  Bye Mike

[Altera_Forum]

thanks, it is a good hint to start exploring new possibilities.