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Altera_Forum's avatar
Altera_Forum
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16 years ago

Transceiver Pin Assignment Problem in Pin Planner for Stratix IV GX 230 FPGA

Hi,

I am doing IO assignment analysis and Pin Planning check for one of our FPGA design. Design is having multiple high speed Tx/Rx serial link and other I/O standard requirement. To name a few like PCIe, Seraillite-II etc... Legality of Pin assignment in our FPGA design is passing except for all the transceiver pin assignments. Whenever, I am assigning the pin as per our already planned pin allocation ( i.e. Tx & Rx pin of QL0, QL1, QR0 etc..), I/O Check by Pin Planner is giving following error message for each of the transceiver pin assignment. For example :

error: differential i/o output pin rix_peg_txd[5](n) is assigned to a gxb transmitter location ab37. however, it must be assigned to a differential output location

When I delete all the pin assignment for Transceiver related signal in Pin Planner, then Live I /O Check passes in the Pin Planner. If I also only assign like IOBANK_QL0 or IOBANK_QRO etc.. under Location in Pin Planner, I/O Check passes.

With above changes to make I/O Check passing, our Fitter run thereafter fails and throws following error messages :

error: i/o standard "1.4-v pcml" is not valid for i/o pad "rix_peg_txd[1](n)". only pins connected to gxb transceiver blocks can use this standard.

Just for info, I/O Standard used as 1.4 V PCML for all our Transceiver pin of selected device EP4SGX230KF40C2ES.

I am not able to figure out the reason for this. Any suggestion, Please. Early response is highly appreciated.

3 Replies

  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    A similar error can be expected if you didn't yet place GXB block instances in your design. Did you?

  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    Basically you can't have transceiver pins in your design and not connect them to transceiver blocks. It's okay to make the pin assignment but if you're not going to connect the pin in the design, you need to remove it from the top level design.

    Jake
  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    Hi,

    Thanks for the prompt response. I didn't create GXB instance in my top level design. After instance creation, it has resolved the issue. Now, I/O check for all the pre-assigned transceiver pin is also passing alongwith successful Fitter run. Thanks again !

    Rakesh