AR# 2732: CPLD XC9500 Family Hitop - How to control Timing in a CPLD
AR# 2732
CPLD XC9500 Family Hitop - How to control Timing in a CPLD
Description
Keywords: timing, timespecs, timing optimization, local feedbacks,
Urgency: standard
General Description:
Improving timing of your CPLD design
Solution
1
Global Timing Optimization:
By default, the fitter performs global timing optimization on logic paths in your design. Timing optimization will shorten your critical paths as much as it can. In general, timing optimization optimizes logic and allocates the fastest available resources for the longest paths in your design, assuming all paths are equally critical. In some cases, the fitter trades off density for a speed advantage.
Global Timing Optimization is user controllable from the implementation options template.
2
Collapsing Pterm Limit:
If you find that the path delay of a larger, multi-level logic function is not satisfactory, try increasing the p-term limit parameter to allow the larger functions to be flattened further. For example, you may try increasing the p-term limit to 50 when rerunning the fitter.
The allowable limits for XC9500/XL designs are between 2 and 90.
3
Using Timing Specifications:
You can enter Timing Specifications for your design through either your schematic or a UCF file.
The following path types can be controlled using timing specifications:
Pad-to-pad delay Input port to an output port
Register setup time Input port to the data pin of a flip-flop, including flip-flop setup requirements
Register-to-register Clock pin of a flip-flop to the data pin of the same or different flip-flop, including flip-flop setup requirements
Clock-to-output delay Clock pin of a flip-flop to an output port
For a more detailed description of how to use Timing Specifications, please refer to the Libraries Guide available online at: http://support.xilinx.com/support/library.htm Click on the Manuals appropriate for your software version.
4
Reducing Levels of Logic:
The XC9500 architecture, like most CPLD devices, is organized as a large, variable-sized combinational logic resource (the AND-array and XOR gate) followed by a register. If you place combinational logic before a register in your design, the fitter maps the logic and register into the same macrocell. The output of the register is then directly available at an output pin of the device. If, however, you place logic between the output of a register and the device output pin, a separate macrocell must used to perform the logic, decreasing both the speed and density of your design.
5
Using Local Feedbacks:
By default, all internal nodes in an XC9500/XL design (those that remain after collapsing) are routed via the FastCONNECT structure. There are also higher-speed routing paths that feed back from each macrocell to the inputs of the same local function block. To use the local feedback path for a particular node in your design, both the source logic and the load logic on the node must be explicitly mapped to the same function block. You must apply the following two constraints:
1. Constrain both the driving function and load function(s) to the same function block using the LOC=FBnn attribute.
2. Apply a timing specification to the path that would require the local feedback path (so that the path cannot be satisfied using FastCONNECT routing delays).
Hint: You can specify the value of 1 ns in your timespec to tell the fitter to use local feedback, even though the fitter will warn you that it cannot satisfy your timespecs.
As an alternative to applying a timing specification (#2), you can turn on the Use Local Feedback option in the Design Manager. But, that would allow the local feedback path to be used for any other internal nodes in the design that run between two functions that happen to get mapped to the same function block.