sdram controller

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Ferris Beuler's Day Out? Anyone? Anyone? Shows my age I suppose :-)

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I didn't see that film (yet) but a quick peek at Wikipedia didn't give me a clue what the connection is. Neither (IMHO) does the urban dictionary's definition (http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=beuler) apply.

Now back to your question:

I guess a lot of people have written their own controller. I have done a few, am in the process of doing another one but contemplating to just use Altera's IP and focus on other challenges in our products.

PCB layout: you do not have to take any more care for PLL signals as for other output signals; evidently they all have the same range of rise time. Of course a clock signal over a poorly laid out PCB track shows it self ...

Running the DRAM refresh from the video access is something I already did back in 1983 - building the controller with PALs and delay lines, saving a few expensive PALs and real estate. It simplifies the controller considerably.