DCM Autoconfiguration??

Mar 16, 2007 4 Replies

I have ported a project that was developed on an ML401 Virtex4 board over to an Avnet Virtex4 PCI-E board. The ML401 uses a V4LX25 and the Avnet board uses a V4FX60. The only changes I made to the project had to do with just reassigning signals in the UCF.



I have 2 DCM's in the project. Each DCM's lock signal is routed out to an LED on the board. Each DCM's output clock is routed to a header pin (as well as elsewhere in the design). After configuration (or after a pushbutton RESET to the FPGA) the lock LED's light and the output clocks are valid. This lasts about half a second. Then everything goes dead. So lock is high and valid clocks are output for at least hundreds of thousands of cycles. Then nothing. I can press the RESET button (resets the DCM's -- their lock's are used to distribute sync resets to the rest of the logic in the design) and the lock LED's light and the clocks are valid -- again, only for about half a second.



One difference I noticed is that the ISE reports that the DCM hierarchical names have changed due to DCM Autocalibration. There are also multiple refences to this DCM autocalibration in various reports. I have never heard of this, and I can't find info on Xilinx site. Is there something different that happens with DCM's on V4FX parts compared to V4LX parts? I have checked Avnet app notes on this board. Their UCF doesn't have anything special in it that I overlooked.



This is a weird problem I haven't looked in to very hard. Thought I would ask here to see if it is a bonehead move on my part : )



Thanks!



Sorry, it is late. The subject should be DCM AutoCALIBRATION not Autoconfiguration.

I should try searching for the correct term. I've found the info on Xilinx' site. I still don't know why the thing is failing though....

I just went through this last week. Had the same behavior. Went about the debug the same way that you did. Turning off the DCM autocalbration soved the problem. THe following line in your UCF will work: INST dcm_0/dcm_0/Using_DCM_ADV.DCM_ADV_INST DCM_AUTOCALIBRATION="FALSE"; (Substitute the name of your DCM for mine...)

Regards, Erik.

Erik Widding President Birger Engineering, Inc. (mail) 38 Chauncy St #1101; Boston, MA 02111 (voice) 617.695.9233 (fax) 617.695.9234 (web) http://www.birger.com

Yep, that is what I did. I have my DCM configured such that the CLKFB is not connected. I don't really need it for my application and thought I would save some clock buffers. Apparently, the DCM Autocal circuitry will hold the DCM in reset if EITHER the CLKFB or CLKIN loses a clock signal. Well, CLKFB never had one, so I guess the Autocal cicuitry waits for lock until it performs its function.

So now I have everything working as should be!

Thanks for the reply!

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