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Altera_Forum's avatar
Altera_Forum
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15 years ago

Loss of lock in the PLL of ALTLVDS_Rx

Hi,

I have two similar boards based on Cyclone III.

My project works in both boards. This project performs exchange of data between boards with LVDS (physical link is made by SATA cable and connectors).

Two boards are connected by two SATA cables.

Accidentally (it may be very sparse), I see the loss of lock in the PLL of ALTLVDS_Rx (I capture falling edge of output "rx_locked").

What can be the reason of it ?

23 Replies

  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    Also, Quartus II posts message after compilation:

    Critical Warning: PLL"altlvds_tx0:inst23|altlvds_tx:altlvds_tx_component|lvds_tx_9hi1:auto_generated|lvds_tx_pll" input clock inclk[0] is not fully compensated because it is fed by a remote clock pin "Pin_90".

    It may be the possible reason of loss of lock in the PLL of receiver. But Pin 90 is dedicated clock input (CLK14) in EP3C16Q240C8 and I connected external clock generator (20 MHz) to pin 90.

    What pin of EP3C16Q240C8 I need to connect external clock generator ?

    How can I determine a dedicated (not remote) clock input pin for PLL used in ALTLVDS_Tx?
  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    Yes,

    SATA cable consists of two diff pairs. And I use one of them to transmit data and the second pair to transmit clock.

    One SATA cable is assigned to transmit from board "A" to board "B". The second SATA cable is assigned to transmit from board "B" to board "A".

    Termination is correct, 100 Ohm SMT resistors (for data and clock pairs respectively) at the receiver.

    Data rate is 160 Mbps.

    Unfortunately, I have no special oscilloscope to view waveform at the receiver. Before production of PCB simulation was made to set impedance of pathes to 50 Ohm.
  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    Do I understand right, that you are sending the clock over the second differential pair with the data? Did you provide correct termination for the LVDS signals? Are you able to check level and waveforms at the receiver?