Source Synchronous Interfaces between Altera FPGAs
Description
Previous articles examined the methods of timing source synchronous inputs and outputs independently, when one device was an Altera® FPGA, using the Quartus® II Classic static timing analysis tool. This Tech Note examines in detail a special case when both the transmitting and receiving devices are Altera FPGAs using the new Quartus II TimeQuest static timing analysis tool. In addition to demonstrating how to do this for specific interfaces between two Altera FPGAs, information provided in the Appendices describes how to adapt this method for using on any source synchronous interface when only one side, input or output, is an Altera device.
In the first example, a 550 MHz 144-bit SDR source synchronous interface is examined as a means of passing high-throughput data between two devices. In the next example, a 400 MHz 144-bit DDR source synchronous interface is examined. The method used in these examples will maximize timing margin on the data capture and demonstrate how to time the interface for both SDR and DDR connections. No practical design could run at these internal clock speeds in an FPGA, but these examples demonstrate the speed and data width that an SDR or DDR source synchronous I/O interface is capable of running at when using Altera devices.
This article is for older generation Altera device families, the document and table could be updated for newer families.
| Method | Clocking | Data | MegaFunction | Devices | Data Rate | Max Width | Max Throughput |
|---|
| High-Speed SERDES | CDR | Serial | ALTGXB ALT2GXB | Stratix GX Stratix IIGX | 400 Mbps-6,375 Gbps | 20 | 128 Gbps |
| High-Speed LVDS | CDS(DPA) | Serial | ALTLVDS | Stratix IIGX Stratix GX Cyclone II Cyclone | 150 Mbps-1.25 Gbps | 132 | 165 Gbps |
| Source Synchronous | Source Synchronous feedabck mode of the PLL | Parallel (SDR & DDR) | ALTDDIO | All FPGAs | 2 Mbps-550 Mbps (SDR) 4Mbps-800Mbps (DDR) | 144 | 115 Gbps |
Table 1. Comparison of High-Throughput Data Transfer Methods
Contents
Implementing_a_Source_Synchronous_Interface_v2.0.doc - document article for this topic, includes many figures and examples
