Using LUTs to create a phase delayed clock - is it reproducible?

Aleksandar Kuktin wrote on 11/5/2017 3:38 PM:

It can be done, but dependant on how accurate you need the delay to be. If you can live with variation over chips, temperature and power supply voltage of perhaps 50 % (a number scientifically pulled from air), it will work.

If you are just trying to create some delay so data is stable when clock arrives or something like that were you have a lot of tolerance this can work. If you need precision (depending on your value of precision) it won't. There is also the issue of routing delays varying from one layout to another. My boss at one job had delayed a clock by manually routing the signal through a mux near the IOB. Then he didn't document how he made it work, lol. We needed to make a change to the design and he had to show us how he made it work including how he used the manual routing tool. Even then it was not documented by anyone. What a loose cannon!

As is typically done when people ask "how long is a piece of string", what are you doing exactly? Maybe there is a better approach?

I'm very much a learner with FPGA but just my general hardware experience suggests that would be a really bad way to go. Random use of chips to make a delay seems a bit flakey to me. You'd surely need to create a lock step somehow?

Reading the Xilinx design book (Churiwala) I did notice that the layout of the FPGA can be changed by the compiler/software when manipulating for phase variance which might at first glance suggest software can accomodate you - but presumably that would mean a different layout each time. I'm guessing that would not be good.

(The Xilinx book has a whole chapter on clocking by the way)

From what I've read a more careful clocking design in the first place using the PLLS to generate something is really the way to go.

Perhaps I've missed something someone experienced can say though.

There are some old Xilinx app notes written for Virtex E series if memory serves me correctly. They talk about how to use carry chains to build a variable delay. The point of this is that you could use a variable delay line to create your phase delay if you have some sort of feedback mechanism to detect the optimum delay point. This is building a delay-locked loop out of fabric elements. In the old FPGA's the carry chains were much faster than LUTs and therefore gave you much finer grain in the delay. They are also fixed in the layout, giving a better chance of repeatability between builds.

It seems to be a bad idea. I'd recommend an external PLL with a couple of outputs then.