Hi fellow engineers, I am about to design a PCB containing a Xilinx Virtex-4 FPGA. I have some experience in board design and have already used several Virtex and Virtex-II devices. I want an ICS8442 LVDS clock synthesizer to be the clock source of my Virtex-4. A look at the Virtex-4 User Guide (ug070.pdf) scared me a lot by stating "Clock inputs can be configured for any I/O standard, including differential I/O standards. Each clock input can be either single-ended or differential. All 16 or 32 clock inputs can be differential if desired. Global clock inputs can be configured for any I/O standard except LVDS and HT output differential standards. Only CSE output differential standards are supported by the global clock input pins." Does that mean that I am not allowed to connect an LVDS clock to the Global-clock inputs? Or did I get something wrong here? I have to use the ICS8442 because of the large frequency scale from 25-700 MHz. Regards, Melanie
Virtex-4 clocking
Started by ●December 20, 2005
Reply by ●December 20, 20052005-12-20
"Melanie Nasic" <quinn_the_esquimo@freenet.de> schrieb im Newsbeitrag news:do8vhr$sv9$1@mamenchi.zrz.TU-Berlin.DE...> Hi fellow engineers, > > I am about to design a PCB containing a Xilinx Virtex-4 FPGA. I have some > experience in board design and have already used several Virtex and > Virtex-II devices. I want an ICS8442 LVDS clock synthesizer to be the > clock source of my Virtex-4. > A look at the Virtex-4 User Guide (ug070.pdf) scared me a lot by stating > "Clock inputs can be configured for any I/O standard, including > differential I/O standards. Each clock input can be either single-ended or > differential. All 16 or 32 clock inputs can be differential if desired. > Global clock inputs can be configured for any I/O standard except LVDS and > HT output differential standards. Only CSE output differential standards > are supported by the global clock input pins." > Does that mean that I am not allowed to connect an LVDS clock to the > Global-clock inputs? Or did I get something wrong here? I have to use the > ICS8442 because of the large frequency scale from 25-700 MHz. > > Regards, Melanie >no nothing wrong, read it once more time the clock input pins can not be used LVDS OUTPUT they of course can be used as LVDS input. the restriction of some V4 lvds iopins of being input only for LVDS is new it is related to the 'low capacitance' of those pins I think Antti
Reply by ●December 20, 20052005-12-20
"Antti Lukats" <antti@openchip.org> wrote in message news:do8vsi$22q$03$1@news.t-online.com...> "Melanie Nasic" <quinn_the_esquimo@freenet.de> schrieb im Newsbeitrag > news:do8vhr$sv9$1@mamenchi.zrz.TU-Berlin.DE... >> Hi fellow engineers, >> >> I am about to design a PCB containing a Xilinx Virtex-4 FPGA. I have some >> experience in board design and have already used several Virtex and >> Virtex-II devices. I want an ICS8442 LVDS clock synthesizer to be the >> clock source of my Virtex-4. >> A look at the Virtex-4 User Guide (ug070.pdf) scared me a lot by stating >> "Clock inputs can be configured for any I/O standard, including >> differential I/O standards. Each clock input can be either single-ended >> or differential. All 16 or 32 clock inputs can be differential if >> desired. Global clock inputs can be configured for any I/O standard >> except LVDS and HT output differential standards. Only CSE output >> differential standards are supported by the global clock input pins." >> Does that mean that I am not allowed to connect an LVDS clock to the >> Global-clock inputs? Or did I get something wrong here? I have to use the >> ICS8442 because of the large frequency scale from 25-700 MHz. >> >> Regards, Melanie >> > no nothing wrong, read it once more time > > the clock input pins can not be used LVDS OUTPUT > they of course can be used as LVDS input. > > the restriction of some V4 lvds iopins of being input only for LVDS is new > it is related to the 'low capacitance' of those pins I think > > Antti >Antti is correct, but I, too, was confused by the wording in the user guide. I contacted our FAE and he confirmed that the restriction is only when using these pins as outputs. Bob
Reply by ●December 20, 20052005-12-20
Antti, Yes, some pins do not have the LVDS output structure. The "low capacitance" that affords is a mere 0.5 pF, so I think more appropriate would be to say these pins just don't have these two IO output standards available to them. Austin Antti Lukats wrote:> "Melanie Nasic" <quinn_the_esquimo@freenet.de> schrieb im Newsbeitrag > news:do8vhr$sv9$1@mamenchi.zrz.TU-Berlin.DE... > >>Hi fellow engineers, >> >>I am about to design a PCB containing a Xilinx Virtex-4 FPGA. I have some >>experience in board design and have already used several Virtex and >>Virtex-II devices. I want an ICS8442 LVDS clock synthesizer to be the >>clock source of my Virtex-4. >>A look at the Virtex-4 User Guide (ug070.pdf) scared me a lot by stating >>"Clock inputs can be configured for any I/O standard, including >>differential I/O standards. Each clock input can be either single-ended or >>differential. All 16 or 32 clock inputs can be differential if desired. >>Global clock inputs can be configured for any I/O standard except LVDS and >>HT output differential standards. Only CSE output differential standards >>are supported by the global clock input pins." >>Does that mean that I am not allowed to connect an LVDS clock to the >>Global-clock inputs? Or did I get something wrong here? I have to use the >>ICS8442 because of the large frequency scale from 25-700 MHz. >> >>Regards, Melanie >> > > no nothing wrong, read it once more time > > the clock input pins can not be used LVDS OUTPUT > they of course can be used as LVDS input. > > the restriction of some V4 lvds iopins of being input only for LVDS is new > it is related to the 'low capacitance' of those pins I think > > Antti > >
Reply by ●December 20, 20052005-12-20
"Austin Lesea" <austin@xilinx.com> schrieb im Newsbeitrag news:do988l$84u2@xco-news.xilinx.com...> Antti, > > Yes, some pins do not have the LVDS output structure. The "low > capacitance" that affords is a mere 0.5 pF, so I think more appropriate > would be to say these pins just don't have these two IO output standards > available to them. > > Austin >Hi Austin yes I know, I learned it the hard way, I was jump starting a FX12 board with LVDS _output_ clock connected in the banks that do not LVDS out (eg banks 0..3 for FX12-SF363) - after reading the datasheet, well its all in the datasheet but I guess there are more people around to find this issue the hard way. Antti
Reply by ●December 20, 20052005-12-20
I totally agree on that, Antti! The information given in the user guide is very misleading. "Antti Lukats" <antti@openchip.org> schrieb im Newsbeitrag news:do998g$nc3$00$1@news.t-online.com...> "Austin Lesea" <austin@xilinx.com> schrieb im Newsbeitrag > news:do988l$84u2@xco-news.xilinx.com... >> Antti, >> >> Yes, some pins do not have the LVDS output structure. The "low >> capacitance" that affords is a mere 0.5 pF, so I think more appropriate >> would be to say these pins just don't have these two IO output standards >> available to them. >> >> Austin >> > Hi Austin > > yes I know, I learned it the hard way, I was jump starting a FX12 board > with LVDS _output_ clock connected in the banks that do not LVDS > out (eg banks 0..3 for FX12-SF363) - after reading the datasheet, well > its all in the datasheet but I guess there are more people around > to find this issue the hard way. > > Antti >
