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Altera_Forum's avatar
Altera_Forum
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14 years ago

what is the meaning of"cant place all ram cells in design"?

hi all:

i make a project with quartus 11.1,and the chip is ep3c55f780c8.

when i complie the design,an error occured.the message is"error(170040):cant place all ram cells in design".but the ram i use isnt over the chip.

here is the sy

nthesis result:

total combinational functions 4129/55856(7%)

dedicated logic registers 1882/55856(3%)

total registers 3246

total memory bits 2206720/2396160(92%)

i instantiates 4 16k*32bit singal-port-ram

does anybody know that?

3 Replies

  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    14 years ago

    On CIII devices, memory is fitted into M9k blocks.

    With 32bit wide ram you can only use 8/9 of each block and you are not allowed to use spare bits elsewhere. This is a device constraint.

    EP3C55 has 260 M9k blocks: each will be used in 256 x 32bit configuration, so you waste 256 x 4bits for each block. You need 256 blocks to synthesise your 2Mbit ram but you actually commit 2359296 physical memory bits.
  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    14 years ago

    thanks verymuch!

    so one m9k block can be used in 256x32bit or 256x36 bit,right? if i use 256x32bit,the other 256x4bit can be used for what?or be wasted?
  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
    Icon for Honored Contributor rankHonored Contributor
    14 years ago

    The other is wasted.

    A M9k can't be shared between 2 devices.

    Same behaviour occurs when you don't use all addresses. For example if you only need a 200 x 36bit ram, the unused 56 x 36bit are wasted.