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Seadog's avatar
Seadog
Icon for Occasional Contributor rankOccasional Contributor
4 years ago

DDR3 timing errors on Cyclone V

Closing timing on a design using the 5CGTFD9E5F35C7, getting a few (17) setup failures on a DDR3 controller core; launch and latch clock are different, but both are part of DDR3 core. From: and to: nodes are also all internal to core. An example:

slack: -3.404

from node: ddr3_v20:ddr3_v20_inst|ddr3_v20_0002:ddr3_v20_inst|ddr3_v20_s0:s0|altera_mem_if_sequencer_cpu_cv_synth_cpu_inst:cpu_inst|W_alu_result[15]

to node:

ddr3_v20:ddr3_v20_inst|ddr3_v20_0002:ddr3_v20_inst|ddr3_v20_s0:s0|sequencer_scc_mgr:sequencer_scc_mgr_inst|scc_parallel

launch clock:

ddr3_v20_inst|ddr3_v20_inst|pll0|pll6~PLL_OUTPUT_COUNTER|divclk

latch clock:

ddr3_v20_inst|ddr3_v20_inst|pll0|pll7~PLL_OUTPUT_COUNTER|divclk

relationship: 0.000

clock skew: -0.599

data delay: 2.735

Note that launch and latch edges are coincident (doesn't seem quite fair does it?). The clock frequencies seem to be quite low (<= 50 MHz?). Closure recommendations provided by Timing Analyzer all seem to ask for changes to the core design (move nodes - not sure exactly what that means, duplicate nodes, ensure launch and latch frequencies are exact multiples, reduce levels of logic).

I would think that the SDC files created by Platform Designer would have constrained the core sufficiently.

Suggestions?

Thanks.

17 Replies

  • AdzimZM_Altera's avatar
    AdzimZM_Altera
    Icon for Regular Contributor rankRegular Contributor

    Hi Seadog,


    Thanks for using Intel Community.

    I'm Adzim, AE that will assist you in this thread.


    I really appreciate if you can share the design with me for replication purpose.


    Thanks,

    Adzim


    • Seadog's avatar
      Seadog
      Icon for Occasional Contributor rankOccasional Contributor

      Hi Adzim,

      I can not share the design, it is ITAR restricted. I have attached a spreadsheet with the details on the errors. I can summarize the problem as well:

      • the 'From Nodes' and and 'To Node' (all errors are associated with the same 'To Node'), and the Launch and Latch Clocks are all internal to the DDR3 core
      • the Launch and Latch clock edges in question are coincident, thus the timing relationship (delay/skew budget) is 0.0 ns
      • there are numerous other paths using the same launch and latch clocks which do not have timing errors; the difference is that in the error cases, the latch clock is using the falling edge, whereas in the non-error cases, the latch clock uses the rising edge