Are there any known issues with the transceiver Tx signal integrity that may increase the BER on Stratix® V GX production silicon devices?

Description

Yes, due to a bug in Quartus® II software versions 12.0, 12.0SP1, and 12.0SP2, you may see a periodic glitch on the transceiver Tx pins of Stratix® V GX production devices.

The glitch will produce a marginal increase in Tx jitter which may result in a marginally higher Bit Error Rate (BER).

Resolution

To fix this problem, install the appropriate patch below.

Patches for Quartus® II software version 12.0 dp2

• Quartus II software version 12.0 patch 0.dp2b Windows exe file
• Quartus II software version 12.0 patch 0.dp2b Linux tar file
• Quartus II software version 12.0 patch 0.dp2b readme.txt file

Patches for Quartus® II software version 12.0 dp3

• Quartus II software version 12.0 patch 0.dp3e Windows exe file
• Quartus II software version 12.0 patch 0.dp3e Linux tar file
• Quartus II software version 12.0 patch 0.dp3e readme.txt file

Patches for Quartus® II software version 12.0 SP1

• Quartus II software version 12.0 SP1 patch 1.12 Windows exe file
• Quartus II software version 12.0 SP1 patch 1.12 Linux tar file
• Quartus II software version 12.0 SP1 patch 1.12 readme.txt file

Patches for Quartus® II software version 12.0 SP2

• Quartus II software version 12.0 SP2 patch 2.02 Windows exe file
• Quartus II software version 12.0 SP2 patch 2.02 Linux tar file
• Quartus II software version 12.0 SP2 patch 2.02 readme.txt file

After installing the patch, regenerate your transceiver PHY and/or QSYS system and recompile your project.