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Altera_Forum's avatar
Altera_Forum
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15 years ago

BeMicro SDK: PIN C6 (VREFB8N0) is assigned to RAM_CS#

I have quite a few questions for the BeMicro SDK, but one at a time.

The support material is pretty lacking and doesn't even include a pin assignment. I made one based on the schematics, but when I try to instantiate the DDR memory controller, it fails to place with the message:

"Error: Cannot place I/O pin mem_dq[8] in pin location E8 -- I/O standard assigned to pin requires VREF value and VREF pin corresponding to pin location not available

Error: Cannot place I/O pin mem_dq[9] in pin location E7 -- I/O standard assigned to pin requires VREF value and VREF pin corresponding to pin location not available

Error: Cannot place I/O pin mem_dq[10] in pin location E6 -- I/O standard assigned to pin requires VREF value and VREF pin corresponding to pin location not available

Error: Cannot place I/O pin mem_dq[11] in pin location A7 -- I/O standard assigned to pin requires VREF value and VREF pin corresponding to pin location not available

Error: Cannot place I/O pin mem_dq[12] in pin location B7 -- I/O standard assigned to pin requires VREF value and VREF pin corresponding to pin location not available

Error: Cannot place I/O pin mem_dq[13] in pin location B6 -- I/O standard assigned to pin requires VREF value and VREF pin corresponding to pin location not available

Error: Cannot place I/O pin mem_dq[14] in pin location B5 -- I/O standard assigned to pin requires VREF value and VREF pin corresponding to pin location not available

Error: Cannot place I/O pin mem_dq[15] in pin location A5 -- I/O standard assigned to pin requires VREF value and VREF pin corresponding to pin location not available

..."

Looking at the schematics, I do see that the lower half of mem_dq lives in Bank 7 which does indeed have its VREF hooked up to 1.8 V, however Bank 8 has its VREF assigned to chip select!

Is this a bug? Any suggestions to how to workaround it (other than wasting half the SDRAM and only use the lower-order byte)?

Thanks

Tommy

17 Replies

  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    15 years ago

    FWIW, dropping the higher order byte didn't help:

    --- Quote Start ---

    Error: Cannot place I/O pin mem_dqs[0] in pin location C8 -- I/O standard assigned to pin requires VREF value and VREF pin corresponding to pin location not available

    --- Quote End ---

    I've shot a mail at Arrow hoping to make some progress.
  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    15 years ago

    Any progress with your efforts? I'm currently trying to get answers for the BeMicro SDK from Arrow too. Their BSP is a joke (at least what I have been able to find), it does not even include support for DDR RAM, microSD, or Ethernet.

    But there is a pin assignment file, it is just hard to find.

    In the Zip file "BeMicro_SDK_Lab_Materials_v1_22" there is a sub folder "Optional_HW_Lab". In that folder there is another zip that contains a file "pin_assignments.tcl" that has what you might need.

    David
  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    15 years ago

    Thanks. The original zip file with support material didn't contain the Optional_HW_Lab subfolder.

    I did get an answer (multiple actually) from Arrow. The essence is that the Altera DDR controller doesn't support mobile DDR so they used 3rd party IP (same for the

    SDcard).

    This was an unexpected upset and makes the BeMicro SDK a lot less attractive,

    unless some alternative way of using the onboard DDR SDRAM becomes available.

    I'm still considering rolling my own controller, but it's outside my comfort zone and

    would be a non-trivial undertaking.
  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    15 years ago

    I've ran into the exact same problem today. Spent lots of time until I found this post. Thanks for posting the answer from Arrow.

  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    15 years ago

    I got an answer promising more information within the next few days. Apparently the biggest problem is the Micron memory requires micron IP.

    They weren't clear if they were going to release a version of the project with their own IP or if they were going to release a version that has standalone IP but we will see.

    I think their web page is more than a little misleading for this product.
  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    15 years ago

    According to this blog (search for BeMicro in the page)

    http://www.fpgacentral.com/aggregator/sources/26?page=2

    "Altera selects Microtronix as Preferred Partner for Mobile DDR Memory Controller IP Core"

    "Microtronix has enhanced their Multi-port SDRAM Memory Controller IP Core, to support Mobile DDR memory devices on Cyclone IV family of FPGAs. A free BeMicro hardware reference design and 1-year OpenCore Plus evaluation license for the Microtronix MDDR Memory Controller IP Core is available online for immediate download."

    And Google led me to:

    http://www.microtronix.com/ip-cores/arrow-bemicro-memory-controller-evaluation-license

    I don't have my board yet, but it looks like you could get an evaluation license from that page.

    I also found this link to the BeMicro-SDK zip file

    http://www.arrownac.com/offers/altera-corporation/altera-bemicro/getting_started.html

    The zip file contains BeMicro_SDK_Lab_Materials_v1_22

    Please post if you have any luck getting the DDR to work, and I'll do likewise once I receive my board.

    Cheers,

    Dave
  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    15 years ago

    I got further and I will share what I've got so far.

    The BeMicro_SDK_LAB_Materials zip file contains a compiled sof and a compiled .sopcinfo but it does not contain the source for the hardware images. The main reason for that is that they used three different pieces of third party IP. Namely they used the Microtronix RAM controller, an SD Host Controller IP from SLS corp, and the C to Hardware tools from Altera.

    I managed to get ahold of some information about the original hardware project. I've built an image without the C to Hardware stuff and without the SD card controller and using the opencores evaluation version of the Microtronix memory controller.

    I got a linux kernel up and running but so far no luck with the networking. I enabled the "Altera triple speed ethernet (SLS) driver in the kernel and the Nat Semi Phy. It recognizes ETH0 but it says it cannot talk to the Phy. I am wondering if this is the cause:http://www.alteraforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=18394 (http://www.alteraforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=18394).

    Going to try that fix and see how far I get. I'll share my work once I get something up and running.
  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    15 years ago

    --- Quote Start ---

    According to this blog (search for BeMicro in the page)

    http://www.fpgacentral.com/aggregator/sources/26?page=2

    "Altera selects Microtronix as Preferred Partner for Mobile DDR Memory Controller IP Core"

    "Microtronix has enhanced their Multi-port SDRAM Memory Controller IP Core, to support Mobile DDR memory devices on Cyclone IV family of FPGAs. A free BeMicro hardware reference design and 1-year OpenCore Plus evaluation license for the Microtronix MDDR Memory Controller IP Core is available online for immediate download."

    And Google led me to:

    http://www.microtronix.com/ip-cores/arrow-bemicro-memory-controller-evaluation-license

    I don't have my board yet, but it looks like you could get an evaluation license from that page.

    I also found this link to the BeMicro-SDK zip file

    http://www.arrownac.com/offers/altera-corporation/altera-bemicro/getting_started.html

    The zip file contains BeMicro_SDK_Lab_Materials_v1_22

    Please post if you have any luck getting the DDR to work, and I'll do likewise once I receive my board.

    Cheers,

    Dave

    --- Quote End ---

    so did you get a board? does the MDDR work, I'm looking to get the dev kit, but if MDDR does not work then it's useless
  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    15 years ago

    The evaluation IP for the kit only lets you run for one hour at a time but it does work for me.

    David
  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    15 years ago

    --- Quote Start ---

    I got a linux kernel up and running but so far no luck with the networking. I enabled the "Altera triple speed ethernet (SLS) driver in the kernel and the Nat Semi Phy. It recognizes ETH0 but it says it cannot talk to the Phy. I am wondering if this is the cause:http://www.alteraforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=18394 (http://www.alteraforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=18394).

    Going to try that fix and see how far I get. I'll share my work once I get something up and running.

    --- Quote End ---

    Did you connect the PHY_RESET# to the RESET_N of the SoC? If you did not, that is the problem.

    However there seem to be more issues:

    none of the two possible drivers do talk correctly with the Phy on the MII interface (at least with me).

    I happened to get the OpenCores (IGOR mac) somehow talking to the Phy, but it only worked one signle time and the packets were bogus (Mac packet size was far smaller than the UDP payload).

    Hope this helps, oh and the Altera TSE design worked fine with the simple socket server example, so it is not a SoC-Design problem: I'd guess it is somewhere within the driver (which does not surprise me). But I could not find the issue until now.

    Oh and another thing: Guess you will not need the national phy driver: the phy on the beMicro SDK is not in supported by the driver. However the generic phy routines seem to be quite ok for this phy: just to be save I also tried implementing the interrupt routines for the phy, but that does not really help.

    Lorenz