AN 728: I/O PLL Reconfiguration and Dynamic Phase Shift for Intel® Arria® 10 and Intel Cyclone® 10 GX Devices

ID 683845
Date 8/08/2022
Public
Document Table of Contents

I/O PLL Reconfiguration and Dynamic Phase Shift for Intel® Arria® 10 and Intel® Cyclone® 10 GX Devices

You can use Intel® Arria® 10 and Intel® Cyclone® 10 GX devices to implement phase-locked loop (PLL) reconfiguration and dynamic phase shift for I/O PLLs.

Intel® Arria® 10 and Intel® Cyclone® 10 GX I/O PLL supports dynamic reconfiguration when the device is in user mode. With the dynamic reconfiguration feature, you can reconfigure I/O PLL settings in real time. You can change the divide settings of the PLL counters and the PLL bandwidth settings (loop filter setting and charge pump setting) through an Avalon® memory-mapped interface in the PLL Reconfig Intel® FPGA IP core, without the need to reconfigure the entire FPGA. Intel® Arria® 10 and Intel® Cyclone® 10 GX I/O PLL uses divide counters (N, M, and C counters) and a voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) to synthesize the desired phase and frequency output.

You can perform dynamic reconfiguration using one of the following methods:

  • Memory Initialization File (.mif) streaming reconfiguration
    • Allows I/O PLL reconfiguration using predefined settings saved in an on-chip ROM. You can store many unique PLL configurations in a single ROM.
    • The .mif file is generated automatically by the IOPLL Intel® FPGA IP core. Using the generated .mif file during .mif streaming reconfiguration ensures the legality of the new configuration.
    • Intel recommends using this reconfiguration method.
  • Reconfiguration of individual PLL settings
    • Supports N, M, and C counters reconfiguration.
    • Supports bandwidth setting changes of the loop filter configuration. You must reconfigure the charge pump current setting and loop filter resistance setting for stable operation of the PLL if the M counter value is changed.
    • Supports both read and write operations.
    • This method of reconfiguration is for advanced users. You must ensure the reconfigured PLL settings are within the legal range.

With the dynamic phase shift feature of the I/O PLL, you can modify the phase of the PLL output clocks in real time. You can adjust the phase in increments of 1/8 of the VCO period.

You can perform dynamic phase shift using one of the following methods:

  • Direct access to the dynamic phase shift ports in the IOPLL IP core
    • Supports both shift up and shift down operations.
    • Supports up to seven phase shift steps in a single operation.
  • Dynamic phase shift via the PLL Reconfig IP core
    • Available via .mif streaming reconfiguration or via reconfiguration of individual PLL settings.
    • Supports only write operation.