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Altera_Forum
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10 years ago

What does Altera call their version of Xilinx DNA?

Hi, Xilinx chips have a feature that xilinx calls "chip DNA" where there is an array of laser fuses on each chip and Xilinx blows out a unique fuse pattern on each die before it is shipped. Th...
Altera_Forum's avatar
Altera_Forum
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10 years ago

The link to the user guide I provided above should have contained the name of the IP component, i.e., ALTCHIP_ID. Sorry my response was not as clear as it could have been. After you've been using the tools for a while you get lost in the jargon and terminology and forget that it is unique and often completely bonkers :)

Were you able to test it on the Cyclone III?

Even if Altera has blown some serial fuses on the device, if they do not allow Quartus to implement an ALTCHIP_ID primitive then you're out of luck.

The Cyclone III does have a JTAG USER code that you can program ... and I think you can change it without having to resynthesize. But that would only help if you had a processor or something connected to the JTAG chain to read out that ID.

I suspect that most users that decide they need a unique ID simply use the configuration source, eg, EPCS flash, to store board-specific information.

What is the configuration source for your particular hardware? Perhaps it could be used?

Cheers,

Dave