Cyclone® V Hard Processor System Technical Reference Manual

ID 683126
Date 8/28/2023
Public
Document Table of Contents

12.13.2. HPS Memory Interface Configuration

To configure the external memory interface components of the HPS, open the HPS interface by selecting the Arria V/Cyclone V Hard Processor System component in Platform Designer (Standard). Within the HPS interface, select the EMIF tab to open the EMIF parameter editor.

The EMIF parameter editor contains four additional tabs: PHY Settings, Memory Parameters, Memory Timing, and Board Settings. The parameters available on these tabs are similar to those available in the parameter editors for non-SoC device families.

There are significant differences between the EMIF parameter editor for the Hard Processor System and the parameter editors for non-SoC devices, as follows:

  • Because the HPS memory controller is not configurable through the Intel® Quartus® Prime software, the Controller and Diagnostic tabs, which exist for non-SoC devices, are not present in the EMIF parameter editor for the hard processor system.
  • Unlike the protocol-specific parameter editors for non-SoC devices, the EMIF parameter editor for the Hard Processor System supports multiple protocols, therefore there is an SDRAM Protocol parameter, where you can specify your external memory interface protocol. By default, the EMIF parameter editor assumes the DDR3 protocol, and other parameters are automatically populated with DDR3-appropriate values. If you select a protocol other than DDR3, change other associated parameter values appropriately.
  • Unlike the memory interface clocks in the FPGA, the memory interface clocks for the HPS are initialized by the boot-up code using values provided by the configuration process. You may accept the values provided by UniPHY, or you may use your own PLL settings. If you choose to specify your own PLL settings, you must indicate that the clock frequency that UniPHY should use is the requested clock frequency, and not the achieved clock frequency calculated by UniPHY.
Note: The HPS does not support EMIF synthesis generation, compilation, or timing analysis. The HPS hard memory controller cannot be bonded with another hard memory controller on the FPGA portion of the device.