Intel® Quartus® Prime Pro Edition User Guide: Timing Analyzer

ID 683243
Date 9/26/2022
Public

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3.5.5. Correlating Constraints to the Timing Report

Understanding how timing constraints and violations appear in the timing analysis reports is critical to understanding the results. The following examples show how specific constraints impact the timing analysis reports. Most timing constraints only affect the clock launch and latch edges. Specifically, create_clock and create_generated_clock create clocks with default relationships. However, the set_multicycle_path exception modifies the default setup and hold relationships. The set_max_delay and set_min_delay constraints are low-level overrides that explicitly indicate the maximum and minimum delays for the launch and latch edges.

The following figures show the results of running Report Timing on a particular path. You can view the incremental delays on the Data Path and Waveform tabs after running Report Timing. The Waveform tab allows you to visually reference the Data Path data, as well as the original .sdc constraints. You can use the Waveform tab to easily see how and where the constraints apply.

Figure 84. Report Timing (Waveform Tab)
In the following example, the design includes a clock driving the source and destination registers with a period of 10 ns. This results in a setup relationship of 10 ns (launch edge = 0 ns, latch edge = 10ns) and hold relationship of 0 ns (launch edge = 0 ns, latch edge = 0 ns) from the command:
create_clock -name clocktwo -period 10.000 [get_ports {clk2}]
Figure 85. Setup Relationship 10ns
Figure 86. Hold Relationship 0ns
Adding set_multicycle_path constraints adds multicycles to relax the setup relationship, or open the window, making the setup relationship 20 ns while maintaining the hold relationship at 0 ns:
set_multicycle_path -from clocktwo -to clocktwo -setup -end 2
set_multicycle_path -from clocktwo -to clocktwo -hold -end 1
Figure 87. Setup Relationship 20ns

Adding the following set_max_delay constraints explicitly overrides the setup relationship:

set_max_delay -from [get_registers {regA}] -to \
     [get_registers {regB}] 15

Note that the only thing changing for these different constraints are the launch edge time and latch edge times for setup and hold analysis. Every other line item comes from delays inside the FPGA and are static for a given fit. View these reports to analyze how your constraints affect the timing reports.

Figure 88. Using set_max_delay

For I/O, you must add set_input_delay and set_output_delay constraints, as the following example shows. These constraints describe delays on signals from outside of the FPGA design that connect to the design's I/O ports.

create_clock -period 10 [get_ports clk] 
# Clock used by the transfer, clock relationship is 10ns

# Setup constraints
set_output_delay -clock clk -max 1.2 [get_ports out] 
# Subtracted from Data Required Path as oExt
set_max_delay -from [get_registers B] 12 
# Sets latch edge time

# Hold constraints
set_output_delay -clock clk -min 2.3 [get_ports out] 
# Subtracted from Data Required Path as oExt
set_min_delay -from [get_registers B] 8 
# Sets latch edge time

The values of these constraints are the delays of the external signals between an external register and a port on the design. The -clock argument to the set_input_delay and set_output_delay specifies the clock domain that the external signal belongs to, or rather, the clock domain of the external register connected to the I/O port. The -min and -max options specify the worst-case or best-case delay; not specifying either option causes the worst- and best-case delays to be equal. I/O delays display as iExt or oExt in the Type column, as the following example reports shows.

Figure 89. Setup Slack Path Report and Waveforms for a Reg-To-Output Same-Clock Transfer
Figure 90. Hold Slack Path Report and Waveforms for a Reg-To-Output Same-Clock Transfer

A clock relationship, which is the difference between the launching and latching clock edge of a transfer, is determined by the clock waveform, multicycle constraints, and minimum and maximum delay constraints. The Timing Analyzer also adds the value of set_output_delay as an oExt value. For outputs, this value is part of the Data Required Path, since this is the external part of the analysis. The setup report subtracts the -max value, making the setup relationship harder to meet, since the Data Arrival Path delay must be shorter than the Data Required Path delay. The Timing Analyzer also subtracts the -min value. This subtraction is why a negative number causes more restrictive hold timing. The Data Arrival Path delay must be longer than the Data Required Path delay.