ADM-XRC SDK 2.8.1 User Guide (Linux)
© Copyright 2001-2009 Alpha Data


The zbtsram_port component

Overview

HDL source code

Parameters

Signals

Performance

Overview

The zbtsram_port component is part of the memif package and implements an interface to a bank of DDR-II SSRAM memory. This component follows the generic user interface for memory ports, but also has a few additional parameters and sideband signals, as shown in the following figure:

HDL source code

Projects making use of this component must include all of the following source files (relative to root of SDK installation):

fpga/vhdl/common/memif/memif_pkg.vhd
fpga/vhdl/common/memif/memif_int_pkg.vhd
fpga/vhdl/common/memif/memif_def_synth.vhd OR fpga/vhdl/common/memif/memif_def_sim.vhd
fpga/vhdl/common/memif/zbtsram/zbtsram_port.vhd

If synthesizing, the file fpga/vhdl/common/memif/memif_def_synth.vhd must be included. If simulating, the file fpga/vhdl/common/memif/memif_def_sim.vhd must be included instead.

Parameters

Name Type Function Note
a_width natural Width in bits of the port logical address, a. 4
d_width natural Width in bits of the port data in and out, d and q respectively. 3
pinout zbtsram_pinout_t This value specifies the physical configuration of the memory port. For convenience, an application may map it to one of the predefined constants.  
ra_width natural Width in bits of the memory device address bus, ra. 1
rc_width natural Width in bits of the memory device control bus, rc. 2
rd_width natural Width in bits of the memory device data bus, rd. 3
tag_width natural Width in bits of the tag in and out, tag and qtag respectively.  

Notes:

  1. The ra_width parameter is a property of the printed circuit board, indicating how many wires are physically present, rather than indicating how many of the ra lines are used by a particular ZBT SSRAM device.
  2. The memory device control bus, rc, is composed of various fields in this memory port, with the widths of certain fields specified by the pinout and rd_width parameters. The following figure illustrates the fields that comprise the rc bus:

    The order of the fields within rc is always the same, but some models may lack certain fields.
  3. The rd_width parameter is the number of physical DQ wires making up the data bus of the DDR-II SSRAM bank. This memory port transfers one word of data on the DQ wires for each command entered via the ce signal. Accordingly, the d_width parameter, which is the width of d and q, is typically specified by the user application as being the same as rd_width. However, other values can be passed for d_width:
  4. The a_width parameter is the width of the logical address bus, a. Generally, it must be sufficiently wide to be able to address all of the memory in a ZBT SSRAM bank. Hence, the required value of a_width depends on what memory devices are actually in use. As an example, consider a ZBT SSRAM device with 20 address bits. Since "logical" memory locations are the same width as the physical memory locations, 20 is also the minimum value of a_width. When a_width is larger than actually required, the top few unused bits of a are ignored by the memory port. In practice, one should determine the value of a_width assuming that the largest possible memory devices are in use.
Signals

The signals of this interface to and from the user application are as follows:

Signal Type Function Note
a in Logical address

User code must place a valid address on a when it asserts ce. Unlike certain other types of memory, where the address driven on ra is some function of what is entered via a, for ZBT SSRAM devices the logical address can be observed on the ra bus (delayed by a few clk cycles).
 
be in Byte enables to memory

User code must place valid byte enables on be whenever a write command is entered (ce and w both asserted). A logic 1 in a given bit of be means that the corresponding byte within be will be written to memory, while a zero means that the corresponding byte will not be written to memory.
 
ce in Command entry

User code asserts this signal to enter a new read or write command into the memory port. When asserted, a and w must be valid. When asserted along with w, tag must also be valid.

User code must not assert ce when ready is deasserted.

Other than that, there are no restrictions on how few or how many clock cycles ce can remain asserted. It can be pulsed for single clk0 cycles, or asserted for many clk0 cycles (ready permitting).

The address, byte enables, tag etc. of a command need not bear any relationship to that of the previous command, but refer to the section below for a discussion of performance.
 
clk0 in Clock for user interface

All other signals except rst are synchronous to clk0.
 
d in Data to memory

User code must place valid data on d whenever a write command is entered (ce and w both asserted).
 
pipeline in Pipelined mode select (sideband signal)

User code should drive this input in order to select the expected operating mode of the ZBT SSRAM device:

0 => flowthrough mode
1 => pipelined mode
5
q out Data from memory

When valid is asserted by the memory port (as a result of a read command), q reflects the data read from memory.
 
qtag out Tag out

When valid is asserted by the memory port (as a result of a read command), qtag reflects the tag value that was assocated with that read command.
 
ready out Port ready

When the memory port asserts ready, user code is permitted to assert ce. This memory port unconditionally asserts ready.
 
rst in Asynchronous reset for memory port

May be tied to logic 0 if not required.
 
sr in Synchronous reset for memory port

May be tied to logic 0 if not required.
 
tag in Tag in

When user code asserts ce with w deasserted, it must also place a valid tag on the tag signal. When, as a result of the read command, the memory port asserts valid, the qtag output reflects the tag value originally passed. This is intended to facilitate sharing of a memory port between several data sources or data sinks, where each source or sink recognizes a particular set of tags.
 
valid out Read data valid

When the memory port asserts valid, it does so as a result of a read command (user code asserted ce with w deasserted). When valid is asserted, both q and qtag are valid.
 
w in Write select

When user code asserts ce, it must place either a logic 1 on the w signal in order to select a write command, or 0 in order to select a read command.
 

Notes:

  1. For correction operation, all sideband inputs must be static while the memory port is not idle.

The signals of this interface to and from the memory device(s) are as follows:

Signal Type Function
ra in Memory device address bus

This bus carries address information to from the memory port to the memory device(s).
rc inout Memory device control bus

This bus carries control signals between the memory port and the memory device(s), and is composed of various fields. These signals are bundled together into the rc bus so that, for the most part, the user application need not care what they are.

Refer to note 2 for the mapping of the rc bus to device pins.
rd inout Memory device data bus

This bus carries data between the memory port and the memory device(s). For each command entered via ce, one word is transferred on rd, which determines the relationship between the rd_width and d_with parameters. Refer to note 3 for details.

Performance

There are no performance penalties in this memory port for any particular pattern of usage.

Latency from entry of a read command (ce asserted with w deasserted) to valid asserted depends upon the current mode:

A 32-bit wide ZBT SSRAM port with a clk0 frequency of 133MHz can sustain approximately 533MB/s.

 


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