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Altera_Forum's avatar
Altera_Forum
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16 years ago

Differential pair and Single-ended pins in HSMC of StratixIII 3SL150 kit

Hi all

StratixIII 3S150 kit has 2 HSMC ports (A, B), can i use HSMB_RX_N2(pin 62 of HSMC) and HSMB_RX_P2(pin 60 of HSMC) at the same time for inout interface (single-ended IO)? I asked that because i'm afraid that they are a differential pair. Is this right? If it is right, are there any way use this pin pairs as I/O separately?

Any help for me? thank you very much!

Konpaba

4 Replies

  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    Differential pair pins can be also used as two single ended I/O. You can see this from the device pinout tables. You have to keep distance rules between single ended and differential pins, they are checked by the Quartus fitter. You'll most likely have a somewhat increased crosstalk between p and n pins of a differential pair, depending on the board layout. If you are using the breakout board to connect the HSMC interface, you'll miss sufficient ground pins for single ended I/O.

  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    --- Quote Start ---

    Differential pair pins can be also used as two single ended I/O. You can see this from the device pinout tables. You have to keep distance rules between single ended and differential pins, they are checked by the Quartus fitter. You'll most likely have a somewhat increased crosstalk between p and n pins of a differential pair, depending on the board layout. If you are using the breakout board to connect the HSMC interface, you'll miss sufficient ground pins for single ended I/O.

    --- Quote End ---

    Thank you FvM!

    I think you had worked on this kit (tratixIII3Sl150) and gained a lot of experiences. I describe more detail about my problem:

    My device has two pin : cmd pin and data pin. It talks with tratixIII kit via HSMC B on the kit:

    - cmd line connects with HSMB_RX_P2 (pin 60 of HSMC port).

    - data line connects with HSMB_RX_N2 (pin 62 of HSMC port).

    Pin 60 and pin 62 are neigbour as a pair.

    My problem is the wave form of data line is same as wave form of cmd line ( i used signaltap to monitor).

    When i moved my project on CyloneIII 3C25 stater kit with same conditions and it works.

    There is a different between StratixIII and CyloneIII kit is:

    CyloneIII 3C25 Stater: pin 60 and pin 62 are HSMC_D13 and HSMC_D15. (It mean kit only support single-ended. Is this right KvM?)

    Stratix 3C25 Stater: pin 60 and pin 62 are HSMB_RX_P2 and HSMB_RX_N2 . (It mean kit support single-ended and differential signal. Is this right KvM?)

    So how can I used pin 60 and pin 62 on StratixIII as on Cylone III kit?

    And How to create keep distance rules KvM? Could you explain more to me by an example such as?

    Thanks KvM and everybody for spending your times to read!
  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    i do not think i was ready for you to put words in quotation marks. i'll think about what you really want when you put your search in quotes and try to return something that makes sense.

  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
    Icon for Honored Contributor rankHonored Contributor

    --- Quote Start ---

    Differential pair pins can be also used as two single ended I/O. You can see this from the device pinout tables. You have to keep distance rules between single ended and differential pins, they are checked by the Quartus fitter. You'll most likely have a somewhat increased crosstalk between p and n pins of a differential pair, depending on the board layout. If you are using the breakout board to connect the HSMC interface, you'll miss sufficient ground pins for single ended I/O.

    --- Quote End ---

    I dont understand what is the distance rule. and how to see that whether the gound pins are sufficient or not for single ended IO?

    As far as I know, I thought to use single ended IO, I just need to reconfigure it at pin planner so that it has IO standard 2.5V instead of LVDS isnt it? Please correct me if I am wrong because I am currently configuring the HSMC pins.

    thank you.