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Altera_Forum
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16 years ago

Unused Pin Behavior

I have a question about unused pins. Is there a straightforward way to force unused pins to be inactive within a system, without explicitly defining them in a "bdf" file? They could be either Inputs with pullups or they could even be tristate outputs.

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  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    You have a global Quartus setting in the device options to achieve just this. Input with weak pull-up or input with hold should be preferred for "inactive" pins. Floating input (just the same as tristate output) can cause additional current consumption and possibly noise.

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    Altera_Forum
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    go to assignments -> settings -> device -> device and pin options ->unused pins

    there you can select the state for your default pins
  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    Thanks to both FvM and saranshmeh for the helpful replies. I knew immediately about the Device & Pin Options Button, but unfortuneately missed the unused pins tab. I was able to make that change and recompile without incident. I had another problem related to my debugging of a processor interface to an EPCS4 that works in parallel with the FPGA. I'll update that thread with what happened and what I had to do in addition to get theings back where thry were.

    http://www.alteraforum.com/forum/showthread.php?p=82719#post82719

    Thanks again.