Designing with Multi-Gigabit Serial I/O

Course Description

Learn how to employ GTP and GTX serial transceivers in your Spartan®-6 LXT FPGA or Virtex®-6 FPGA design. Understand and utilize the features of the RocketIO transceiver blocks, such as 8B/10B and 64B/66B encoding, channel bonding, clock correction, and comma detection. Additional topics include use of the Architecture Wizard, synthesis and implementation considerations, board design as it relates to the transceivers, and test and debugging. This course combines lectures with practical hands-on labs.

Release Date

March 2011

Training Duration

3 days

Who Should Attend?

FPGA designers and logic designers

Prerequisites

• Verilog or VHDL experience or the Designing with Verilog or Designing with VHDL course
• Familiarity with logic design (state machines and synchronous design)
• Basic knowledge of FPGA architecture and Xilinx implementation tools is helpful
• Familiarity with serial I/O basics and high-speed serial I/O standards is also helpful

Software Tools

• Xilinx ISE® Design Suite: System Edition 13.1
• ChipScope™ Pro software 13.1
• Mentor Graphics ModelSim simulator 10.0

Hardware

• Architecture: Spartan-6 and Virtex-6 FPGAs*
• Demo board: Spartan-6 FPGA SP605 or Virtex-6 FPGA ML605 board*

* This course focuses on the Spartan-6 and Virtex-6 architectures. Check with your local Authorized Training Provider for the specifics of the in-class lab board or other customizations

Skills Gained

After completing this comprehensive training, you will know how to:

• Describe and utilize the ports and attributes of the multi-gigabit transceiver in the Spartan-6 and Virtex-6 FPGA
• Effectively utilize the following features of the GTP/GTX:
  • 8B/10B and other encoding/decoding, comma detection, clock correction, and channel bonding
  • Pre-emphasis and linear equalization
• Use the GTP/GTX Transceiver Wizard to instantiate GTP/GTX primitives in a design
• Access appropriate reference material for board design issues involving the power supply, reference clocking, and trace design
• Optimize serial links by using the IBERT design

Course Outline

Day 1

• Course Agenda and Introduction
• Spartan-6 and Virtex-6 Family Overview
• Transceiver Overview (GTP, GTX, GTH, 7 Series Transceiver)
• Transceiver Clocking and Resets
• 8B/10B Encoder and Decoder
• Lab 1: 8B/10B Disparity and Bypass
• Commas and Deserializer Alignment
• Lab 2: Commas and Data Alignment

Day 2

• RX Elastic Buffer and Clock Correction
• Lab 3: Clock Correction
• Channel Bonding
• Lab 4: Channel Bonding
• GTP Wizard Overview
• Lab 5: GTP/GTX Core Generation
• Transceiver Implementation and Simulation
• Lab 6: Implementation and Simulation (GTP/GTX)
• Physical Media Attachments

Day 3

• Virtex-6 FPGA 64B/66B Encoding and the Gearbox
• Lab 7: GTX 64B/66B Encoding
• Transceiver Board Design
• Transceiver Test and Debugging
• Lab 8:System Lab or IBERT Lab Using Xilinx Boards
• Transceiver Application Examples

Lab Descriptions

• Lab 1: 8B/10B Disparity and Bypass – Utilize the 8B/10B encoder and decoder and observe running disparity. Learn how to bypass the 8B/10B encoder and decoder.
• Lab 2: Commas and Data Alignment – Use programmable comma detection to align a serial data stream.
• Lab 3: Clock Correction – Utilize the attributes and ports associated with clock correction to compensate for frequency differences on the TX and RX clocks.
• Lab 4: Channel Bonding – Modify a design to use two transceivers bonded together to form one virtual channel.
• Lab 5: GTP/GTX Core Generation – Use the GTP/GTX Wizard to create instantiation templates.
• Lab 6: Implementation and Simulation – Instantiate the GTP/GTX transceiver component in a design, synthesize the design, and implement the design.
• Lab 7: GTX 64B/66B Encoding – Generate a 64B/66B GTX core by using the CORE Generator™ tool, simulate the design, and analyze the results
• Lab 8: System Lab – Perform all design steps from planning the design, generation of the core, integration of the core into a design, simulating, implementing and debugging the design, and optimizing the link parameter using IBERT and an evaluation board.

Customer Reviews

• Overall good experience and provided good introductory knowledge.
  
  
  
• This was the best course I have ever taken, largely due to the talent of the professor but also great class notes.
  
  
  
• Excellent Instructor! He was very helpful and has a good knowledge of the material.