Why does the serdes_pll_locked signal of upper PCI* Express Hard IP of Intel® Cyclone® V devices does not lock?

Description

Due to a problem with Intel® Quartus® prime Software, Intel® Cyclone® V device that include 6 transceiver channels and two PCIe* Hard IPs will see a problem where the upper PCIe* Hard IP's serdes_pll_locked signal is unable to lock. The lower PCIe Hard IP does not has this issue and is working correctly.

Resolution

To work around this problem, run the enable_rx_pma_direct.xml script on top of the Quartus-generated SOF file. 

Run the script from the command line as shown below, download the .xml script from here and run it from the same directory as the Quartus project file (.qpf).

quartus_asm -e <name_of_sof> -x enable_rx_pma_direct.xml