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amildm's avatar
amildm
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3 years ago
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VIRTUAL PIN

Hi All,

Is it possible to assign a VIRTUAL Pin to a signal inside of the hierarchies or does it MUST be assigned to a port of the higher hierarchy?

Let's say I have a hierarchy named h1, which is a sub-hierarchy of the top hierarchy h0.

The h1 hierarchy has a signal named sig. Can I assign it to a VIRTUAL Pin without connecting it to a signal in the topper hierarchy h0?

Thanks!

5 Replies

  • FvM's avatar
    FvM
    Icon for Super Contributor rankSuper Contributor
    3 years ago
    Other than at top entity, unconnected pins don't occupy resources. What do you want to achieve with virtual pin?
  • RichardT_altera's avatar
    RichardT_altera
    Icon for Super Contributor rankSuper Contributor
    3 years ago

    You can use virtual pins only for I/O elements in lower-level design entities that become nodes after you import the entity to the top-level design; for example, when compiling a partial design. In the top-level design, you connect these virtual pins to an internal node of another module.

    Reference:

    https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/docs/programmable/683641/22-3/defining-virtual-pins.html


    How about you try to use the Preserve for debug feature to preserve the node for debug?

    Reference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEKc2ut42gU


    Best Regards,

    Richard Tan


  • amildm's avatar
    amildm
    Icon for Contributor rankContributor
    3 years ago

    Actually I want to add the signals to SignalTap , but they are optimized by the Synthesizer. Assigning the Virtual Pins to these signals will prevent them from the optimization.

  • RichardT_altera's avatar
    RichardT_altera
    Icon for Super Contributor rankSuper Contributor
    3 years ago

    Thank you for acknowledge the solution provided.

    I’m glad that your question has been addressed, I now transition this thread to community support. If you have a new question, Please login to ‘https://supporttickets.intel.com’, view details of the desire request, and post a feed/response within the next 15 days to allow me to continue to support you. After 15 days, this thread will be transitioned to community support. The community users will be able to help you on your follow-up questions.


    Thank you.


    Best Regards,

    Richard Tan


    p/s: If any answer from the community or Intel Support are helpful, please feel free to give best answer or rate 4/5 survey.