Article ID: 000078744 Content Type: Troubleshooting Last Reviewed: 09/11/2012

Why do I see functional failures using TX transceiver channels in Deterministic Latency mode when the timing analysis is successful using the Quartus II software?

Environment

BUILT IN - ARTICLE INTRO SECOND COMPONENT
Description

Some configurations of transceiver TX channels used in Deterministic Latency mode will result in incorrect timing analysis in the Quartus® II software. In these specific cases the timing analyzer ignores clock paths from the pll_inclk, through the TX PLL, and preceding the TX PCS block resulting in an incorrect timing analysis on the affected paths.  These affected paths may appear to have proper timing closure, which masks potential timing violations due to the incorrect timing analysis.

The following device families and configurations are affected:

  • Stratix® IV GX, Stratix IV GT, Arria® II GX, and HardCopy® IV GX devices with Deterministic Latency mode and enabling the PLL PFD Feedback and using the Byte Serializer are affected when using the Quartus II software versions from 9.1 to 10.0 SP1.
  • Cyclone® IV GX devices with Deterministic Latency mode and enabling the PLL PFD Feedback are affected when using the Quartus II software versions 10.0 and 10.0sp1.

Note that the Altera CPRI MegaCore (which does not utilize the PLL PFD Feedback feature) and Arria II GZ devices are not affected by this issue.

This issue is scheduled to be fixed in a future version of the Quartus II software. If this issue is causing an immediate problem, file a Service Request using mySupport.

Related Products

This article applies to 5 products

Stratix® IV GX FPGA
HardCopy™ IV GX ASIC Devices
Cyclone® IV GX FPGA
Stratix® IV GT FPGA
Arria® II GX FPGA