Webpack sees 2 clocks when there is only one

[Jason Berringer]

Hello,

I'm implementing a data bus between a FPGA (XC2S100) and an 8051. Due to the
multiplexed data/address bus I have to latch the 16 bit address on the
falling edge of ALE (before the lower address byte is changed to the data
byte) so I implement the latch easy enough, however when I sythesize it
through the webpack it interprets this as a clock signal and gives me an
error that it is connected to the wrong pin, it states that I should have it
connected to a clock input. My question is how do I get the sythesizer to
overlook this signal as a clock and treat it as a simple input.

Your help would be greatly appreciated.

In case you needed to see the snipit of code that I'm using to latch the
data here it is (note I've also tried using ale_n'event and ale_n = '0'
instead of faling_edge just in case the translation was somewhat messed up).
This process latches the lower address byte into the signal address_low from
the address_data bidirectional port on my entity.

....
process(reset, ale_n) begin
if reset = '1' then
address_low <= (others => '0');
elsif falling_edge(clk) then
address_low <= address_data;
end if;
end process;
....

Thanks

Jason

 

[Ian Poole]

Hi Jason

Several choices, some more recommended than others!

1) Manually instance an IBUF component on the ale input.
2) XST specific attributes in the VHDL.
3) Options in XST

I'm a little rusty on my XST options and attributes, but I'm sure they can
be found in the documentatin somewhere. However, they are obviously specific
to XST and won't work with any of the other synthesis tools, such as
Leonardo or Synplify. The manual IBUF definately works:

-- synopsys translate_off
library unisim;
use unisim.vcomponents.all;
-- synopsys translate_on
entity whatever
port (ale : in std_logic
end entity;

architecture demo of whatever is
signal ale_n:std_logic;
component IBUF is
port (I : in std_logic ; O : out std_logic);
end component;
begin--architecture

Manual_Buffer : IBUF(I => ale , O => ale_n);

end; --architecture

XST will produce a warning :
"WARNING:NgdBuild:479 - The input pad net 'ale' is driving one or more clock
loads that should only use a dedicated clock buffer. This could result in
large clock skews on this net. Check whether the correct type of BUF is
being
used to drive the clock buffer."

HTH

Ian Poole

"Jason Berringer" <look_at_bottom_of@email.com> wrote in message
news:asWZa.4797$Z03.287010@news20.bellglobal.com...

Hello,

I'm implementing a data bus between a FPGA (XC2S100) and an 8051. Due to
the
multiplexed data/address bus I have to latch the 16 bit address on the
falling edge of ALE (before the lower address byte is changed to the data
byte) so I implement the latch easy enough, however when I sythesize it
through the webpack it interprets this as a clock signal and gives me an
error that it is connected to the wrong pin, it states that I should have
it
connected to a clock input. My question is how do I get the sythesizer to
overlook this signal as a clock and treat it as a simple input.

Your help would be greatly appreciated.

In case you needed to see the snipit of code that I'm using to latch the
data here it is (note I've also tried using ale_n'event and ale_n = '0'
instead of faling_edge just in case the translation was somewhat messed
up).
This process latches the lower address byte into the signal address_low
from
the address_data bidirectional port on my entity.

...
process(reset, ale_n) begin
if reset = '1' then
address_low <= (others => '0');
elsif falling_edge(clk) then
address_low <= address_data;
end if;
end process;
...

Thanks

Jason

 

[Jim]

"Jason Berringer" <look_at_bottom_of@email.com> wrote in message
news:asWZa.4797$Z03.287010@news20.bellglobal.com...

Hello,

I'm implementing a data bus between a FPGA (XC2S100) and an 8051. Due to
the
multiplexed data/address bus I have to latch the 16 bit address on the
falling edge of ALE (before the lower address byte is changed to the data
byte) so I implement the latch easy enough, however when I sythesize it
through the webpack it interprets this as a clock signal and gives me an
error that it is connected to the wrong pin, it states that I should have
it
connected to a clock input. My question is how do I get the sythesizer to
overlook this signal as a clock and treat it as a simple input.

...
process(reset, ale_n) begin
if reset = '1' then
address_low <= (others => '0');
elsif falling_edge(clk) then
address_low <= address_data;
end if;
end process;
...

Thanks

Jason

I'm a newbie myself, but I think you might want to take the ale_n out of the
process parentheses.

Jim

 

[Andy Peters]

"Jason Berringer" <look_at_bottom_of@email.com> wrote in message news:<asWZa.4797$Z03.287010@news20.bellglobal.com>...

Hello,

I'm implementing a data bus between a FPGA (XC2S100) and an 8051. Due to the
multiplexed data/address bus I have to latch the 16 bit address on the
falling edge of ALE (before the lower address byte is changed to the data
byte) so I implement the latch easy enough, however when I sythesize it
through the webpack it interprets this as a clock signal and gives me an
error that it is connected to the wrong pin, it states that I should have it
connected to a clock input. My question is how do I get the sythesizer to
overlook this signal as a clock and treat it as a simple input.

Your help would be greatly appreciated.

In case you needed to see the snipit of code that I'm using to latch the
data here it is (note I've also tried using ale_n'event and ale_n = '0'
instead of faling_edge just in case the translation was somewhat messed up).
This process latches the lower address byte into the signal address_low from
the address_data bidirectional port on my entity.

...
process(reset, ale_n) begin
if reset = '1' then
address_low <= (others => '0');
elsif falling_edge(clk) then
address_low <= address_data;
end if;
end process;

A couple of things:

1) You say you want a latch, so why the "falling_edge(clk)" clause?

2) Read the docs, they should tell you what to write to infer a latch.
Probably something like:

process (ale, address_data) begin
if (ale = '1')
address_low <= address_data;
end process;

You might see some complaints about combinatorial latches if the
target architecture doesn't do latches.

--a

 

[Jason Berringer]

I'm a newbie myself, but I think you might want to take the ale_n out of
the
process parentheses.

Jim

The items in the parentheses are what is know as a sensitivity list, this
means that anything listed (in the parentheses) will trigger the execution
of the process. Removing ale_n from the sensitivity list will mean that this
process will only execute when reset changes state, and will ignore ale_n.
This is not the desired result. Ian's suggestion is probably the best way to
get around this problem.