Actel PA3 hard FIFO: anything i have not understood ?

W

whygee

Guest
Hello group,

These days i'm back at A3P hacking and i fight against the
tools and the elements, and probably against something i don't
even know, so i'm asking the wise and experimented among you...

Basically, a simple FIFO block (like 8b * 512) works.
well, i use it just as a fast-to-slow circuit interface
and i don't expect FULL status by design.

I can even take advantage of word size conversion, i tried
16->8 (dropping the MSB) with some success.
But when i want to do smaller sizes, like 16->1, it... doesn't work.
output remains low, no sign of serialised signal.
i see nothing about that in the datasheet and handbook.
so where to turn when "it doesn't work" ?
(except this group)

ok so let's imagine i can still work with 8b->8b.
i use the "EMPTY" flag to indicate that there is something
available on the output. well, i don't know why but i see
nothing on this signal :-/ it is normally registered on
the (slow) read clock but i see nothing normal.

Let's be clear : i don't do any high-speed stuff or crazy
frequency domain crossing. it's in the 100KHz to 25MHz range,
and I can look at the outputs with my faithful analog T'475.
no problem with catching a 40ns pulse.

So if anyone has any information about Actel ProASIC3's FIFO,
concerning the extreme size conversions (16in, 1out) or/and
the Empty flag, please step up ! If one of them is solved,
i'm saved :)

yg
--
http://ygdes.com / http://yasep.org
 
whygee wrote:
I can even take advantage of word size conversion, i tried
16->8 (dropping the MSB) with some success.
But when i want to do smaller sizes, like 16->1, it... doesn't work.
output remains low, no sign of serialised signal.
i see nothing about that in the datasheet and handbook.
so where to turn when "it doesn't work" ?
(except this group)
ok so width conversion from 18 to 9 bits wide is ok,
I see the Empty status signal change
but not with conversion to 4 bits or less.

It seems that width conversion works with 2x wider
or 2x smaller sizes, but not 4x or 8x or 18x
No mention about it on the handbooks :-(
Had i known this, I would have saved a day of work :-(

yg
--
http://ygdes.com / http://yasep.org
 

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