Avalon® Interface Specifications

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ID 683091
Date 9/03/2025
Public
Document Table of Contents
Document Table of Contents x
1. Introduction to the Avalon® Interface Specifications 2. Avalon® Clock and Reset Interfaces 3. Avalon® Memory-Mapped Interfaces 4. Avalon® Interrupt Interfaces 5. Avalon® Streaming Interfaces 6. Avalon® Streaming Credit Interfaces 7. Avalon® Conduit Interfaces 8. Avalon® Tristate Conduit Interface A. Deprecated Signals B. Document Revision History for the Avalon® Interface Specifications
1. Introduction to the Avalon® Interface Specifications x
1.1. Avalon® Properties and Parameters 1.2. Signal Roles 1.3. Interface Timing 1.4. Example: Avalon® Interfaces in System Designs
2. Avalon® Clock and Reset Interfaces x
2.1. Avalon® Clock Sink Signal Roles 2.2. Clock Sink Properties 2.3. Associated Clock Interfaces 2.4. Avalon® Clock Source Signal Roles 2.5. Clock Source Properties 2.6. Reset Sink 2.7. Reset Sink Interface Properties 2.8. Associated Reset Interfaces 2.9. Reset Source 2.10. Reset Source Interface Properties
3. Avalon® Memory-Mapped Interfaces x
3.1. Introduction to Avalon® Memory-Mapped Interfaces 3.2. Avalon® Memory Mapped Interface Signal Roles 3.3. Interface Properties 3.4. Timing 3.5. Transfers 3.6. Address Alignment 3.7. Avalon® -MM Agent Addressing
3.5. Transfers x
3.5.1. Typical Read and Write Transfers 3.5.2. Transfers Using the waitrequestAllowance Property 3.5.3. Read and Write Transfers with Fixed Wait-States 3.5.4. Pipelined Transfers 3.5.5. Burst Transfers 3.5.6. Read and Write Responses
3.5.2. Transfers Using the waitrequestAllowance Property x
3.5.2.1. waitrequestAllowance Equals Two 3.5.2.2. waitrequestAllowance Equals One 3.5.2.3. waitrequestAllowance Equals Two - Not Recommended 3.5.2.4. waitrequestAllowance Compatibility for Avalon® -MM Host and Agent Interfaces 3.5.2.5. waitrequestAllowance Error Conditions
3.5.4. Pipelined Transfers x
3.5.4.1. Pipelined Read Transfer with Variable Latency 3.5.4.2. Pipelined Read Transfers with Fixed Latency
3.5.5. Burst Transfers x
3.5.5.1. Write Bursts 3.5.5.2. Read Bursts 3.5.5.3. Line–Wrapped Bursts
3.5.6. Read and Write Responses x
3.5.6.1. Transaction Order for Avalon® -MM Read and Write Responses (Hosts and Agents) 3.5.6.2. Avalon® -MM Read and Write Responses Timing Diagram
3.5.6.2. Avalon® -MM Read and Write Responses Timing Diagram x
3.5.6.2.1. minimumResponseLatency Timing Diagram with readdatavalid or writeresponsevalid
4. Avalon® Interrupt Interfaces x
4.1. Interrupt Sender 4.2. Interrupt Receiver
4.1. Interrupt Sender x
4.1.1. Avalon® Interrupt Sender Signal Roles 4.1.2. Interrupt Sender Properties
4.2. Interrupt Receiver x
4.2.1. Avalon® Interrupt Receiver Signal Roles 4.2.2. Interrupt Receiver Properties 4.2.3. Interrupt Timing
5. Avalon® Streaming Interfaces x
5.1. Terms and Concepts 5.2. Avalon® Streaming Interface Signal Roles 5.3. Signal Sequencing and Timing 5.4. Avalon® -ST Interface Properties 5.5. Typical Data Transfers 5.6. Signal Details 5.7. Data Layout 5.8. Data Transfer without Backpressure 5.9. Data Transfer with Backpressure 5.10. Packet Data Transfers 5.11. Signal Details 5.12. Protocol Details
5.3. Signal Sequencing and Timing x
5.3.1. Synchronous Interface 5.3.2. Clock Enables
5.9. Data Transfer with Backpressure x
5.9.1. Data Transfers Using readyLatency and readyAllowance 5.9.2. Data Transfers Using readyLatency
6. Avalon® Streaming Credit Interfaces x
6.1. Terms and Concepts 6.2. Avalon® Streaming Credit Interface Signal Roles 6.3. Avalon® Streaming Credit User Signals
6.2. Avalon® Streaming Credit Interface Signal Roles x
6.2.1. Synchronous Interface 6.2.2. Typical Data Transfers 6.2.3. Returning the Credits
6.3. Avalon® Streaming Credit User Signals x
6.3.1. Per-Symbol User Signal 6.3.2. Per-Packet User Signal
7. Avalon® Conduit Interfaces x
7.1. Avalon® Conduit Signal Roles 7.2. Conduit Properties
8. Avalon® Tristate Conduit Interface x
8.1. Avalon® Tristate Conduit Signal Roles 8.2. Tristate Conduit Properties 8.3. Tristate Conduit Timing
1. Introduction to the Avalon® Interface Specifications
2. Avalon® Clock and Reset Interfaces
3. Avalon® Memory-Mapped Interfaces
4. Avalon® Interrupt Interfaces
5. Avalon® Streaming Interfaces
6. Avalon® Streaming Credit Interfaces
7. Avalon® Conduit Interfaces
8. Avalon® Tristate Conduit Interface
A. Deprecated Signals
B. Document Revision History for the Avalon® Interface Specifications

5.2. Avalon® Streaming Interface Signal Roles

Each signal in an Avalon® streaming source or sink interface corresponds to one Avalon® streaming signal role. An Avalon® streaming interface may contain only one instance of each signal role. All Avalon® streaming signal roles apply to both sources and sinks and have the same meaning for both.
Table 17.   Avalon® Streaming Interface SignalsIn the following table, all signal roles are active high.
Signal Role Width Direction Required Description
Fundamental Signals
channel 1 – 128 Source → Sink No The channel number for data being transferred on the current cycle.

If an interface supports the channel signal, the interface must also define the maxChannel parameter.
data 16384 Source → Sink No The data signal from the source to the sink, typically carries the bulk of the information being transferred.

Parameters further define the contents and format of the data signal.
error 1 – 256 Source → Sink No A bit mask to mark errors affecting the data being transferred in the current cycle. A single bit of the error signal masks each of the errors the component recognizes. The errorDescriptor defines the error signal properties.
ready 1 Sink → Source No Asserts high to indicate that the sink can accept data. ready is asserted by the sink on cycle <n> to mark cycle <n + readyLatency > as a ready cycle. The source may only assert valid and transfer data during ready cycles.

Sources without a ready input do not support backpressure. Sinks without a ready output never need to backpressure.
valid 1 Source → Sink No The source asserts this signal to qualify all other source to sink signals. The sink samples data and other source-to-sink signals on ready cycles where valid is asserted. All other cycles are ignored.

Sources without a valid output implicitly provide valid data on every cycle that a sink is not asserting backpressure. Sinks without a valid input expect valid data on every cycle that they are not backpressuring.
Packet Transfer Signals
empty 1 – 10 Source → Sink No Indicates the number of symbols that are empty, that is, do not represent valid data. The empty signal is not necessary on interfaces where there is one symbol per beat.
endofpacket 1 Source → Sink No Asserted by the source to mark the end of a packet.
startofpacket 1 Source → Sink No Asserted by the source to mark the beginning of a packet.
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