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Altera_Forum
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11 years ago

Propagation Delay for SPI bus routed through MAX II CPLD

Hello All,

I have a question regarding routing an SPI bus through a MAX II CPLD. I am using the set_max_delay to constrain the pin to pin delay on the SPI lines (MISO,MOSI,CLK,CSN), but I have been unable to get the propagation delay below 6-7ns, even when selecting adjacent pins on the package.

For example, here is the timequest report on a test path between two signals (DMAG1 to SPIF2_DI). Note, there is no combinational logic placed between these pins in the VHDL, only an assignment statement (SPIF2_DI <= DMAG1).http://www.alteraforum.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=9928&stc=1

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to get this delay down? The SPI clock is 50 MHz, so I really only have a few ns to spare in CPLD propgation delays. The MAX II handbook mentions a fast I/O connection between adjecent LAB and IOE but I am not quite sure how to exploit this.

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  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    If you use registers in your vhdl/verilog then you might try the fast input/output register option in the assignment editor for the relevant IO pins to improve timing.