Intel® Agilex® 7 M-Series FPGA Network-on-Chip (NoC) User Guide

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ID 768844
Date 5/22/2023
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Document Table of Contents
Document Table of Contents x
1. Answers to Top FAQs 2. Network-on-Chip (NoC) Overview 3. Hard Memory NoC in Intel® Agilex® 7 M-Series FPGAs 4. NoC Design Flow in Intel® Quartus® Prime Pro Edition 5. NoC Real-time Performance Monitoring 6. Simulating NoC Designs 7. NoC Power Estimation 8. Hard Memory NoC IP Reference 9. Document Revision History of Intel® Agilex® 7 M-Series FPGA Network-on-Chip (NoC) User Guide
2. Network-on-Chip (NoC) Overview x
2.1. Introduction to Intel® Agilex® 7 M-Series FPGAs 2.2. Terminology for Intel® Agilex® 7 M-Series FPGAs 2.3. General NoC Architecture and Applications
2.3. General NoC Architecture and Applications x
2.3.1. General NoC Architecture 2.3.2. Example NoC Applications
2.3.2. Example NoC Applications x
2.3.2.1. Parallel Computing NoC Application 2.3.2.2. SmartNIC NoC Application
3. Hard Memory NoC in Intel® Agilex® 7 M-Series FPGAs x
3.1. High-Level Architecture 3.2. NoC Segments 3.3. Fabric NoC 3.4. NoC Protocol Support 3.5. NoC Design Considerations
3.2. NoC Segments x
3.2.1. UIB Segments 3.2.2. GPIO-B Segments 3.2.3. GPIO-B and HPS Segment 3.2.4. SDM Segment 3.2.5. PLL and SSM Segment
3.4. NoC Protocol Support x
3.4.1. AXI4 Protocol Support 3.4.2. AXI4 Handshaking Support 3.4.3. Quality of Service (QoS) Support 3.4.4. Transaction Ordering Support 3.4.5. AXI4 Lite Protocol Support
3.5. NoC Design Considerations x
3.5.1. Determining the Number of NoC Targets 3.5.2. Determining the Number of NoC Initiators 3.5.3. Fabric NoC Considerations 3.5.4. Latency Considerations 3.5.5. Initiator and Target Bandwidth Considerations 3.5.6. Horizontal Bandwidth Considerations 3.5.7. GPIO-B Bypass Mode and Initiators
4. NoC Design Flow in Intel® Quartus® Prime Pro Edition x
4.1. Hard Memory NoC Design Flow Overview 4.2. Using NoC Example Designs 4.3. NoC Building Blocks 4.4. Connecting NoC IP 4.5. Making NoC Logical Assignments 4.6. (Recommended) Make NoC Physical Assignments Using Interface Planner 4.7. Compiling the NoC Design
4.1. Hard Memory NoC Design Flow Overview x
4.1.1. Options for Specifying NoC Connectivity and Addressing
4.3. NoC Building Blocks x
4.3.1. NoC Initiators 4.3.2. NoC Targets 4.3.3. NoC Clock Control
4.4. Connecting NoC IP x
4.4.1. General NoC IP Connectivity Guidelines 4.4.2. Connecting NoC IP 4.4.3. NoC Initiator Connectivity Guidelines 4.4.4. NoC Target Connectivity Guidelines 4.4.5. NoC Clock Control Connectivity Guidelines
4.5. Making NoC Logical Assignments x
4.5.1. Creating NoC Assignments for Compilation 4.5.2. Using the NoC Assignment Editor
4.5.2. Using the NoC Assignment Editor x
4.5.2.1. Step 1: Make Group Assignments in the NoC Assignment Editor 4.5.2.2. Step 2: Make Connection Assignments in the NoC Assignment Editor 4.5.2.3. Step 3: Make Attribute Assignments in the NoC Assignment Editor 4.5.2.4. Step 4: Validate Logical NoC Assignments and Generate Simulation File
4.6. (Recommended) Make NoC Physical Assignments Using Interface Planner x
4.6.1. Using Interface Planner 4.6.2. Recommended Placement Order for NoC Elements in Interface Planner 4.6.3. Hard Memory NoC Locations in Interface Planner 4.6.4. NoC Performance Reports in Interface Planner
4.7. Compiling the NoC Design x
4.7.1. Fitter NoC Reports 4.7.2. Viewing NoC Elements in Chip Planner
6. Simulating NoC Designs x
6.1. Adding NoC Connectivity and Address Mapping to the Simulation Netlist 6.2. Generating a Simulation Registration Include File ( Intel® Quartus® Prime Compilation Flow) 6.3. Generating a Simulation Registration Include File (Optional Early RTL Simulation Flow) 6.4. Contents of Simulation Registration Include File
7. NoC Power Estimation x
7.1. Using the Intel FPGA PTC to Estimate NoC Power
8. Hard Memory NoC IP Reference x
8.1. NoC Initiator Intel FPGA IP 8.2. NoC Clock Control Intel FPGA IP
8.1. NoC Initiator Intel FPGA IP x
8.1.1. NoC Initiator Intel FPGA IP Parameters 8.1.2. NoC Initiator Intel FPGA IP Interfaces
8.1.2. NoC Initiator Intel FPGA IP Interfaces x
8.1.2.1. NoC Initiator Intel FPGA IP AXI4/AXI4 Lite Interfaces 8.1.2.2. NoC Initiator AXI4 User Interface Signals 8.1.2.3. NoC Initiator Intel FPGA IP AXI4 Lite User Interface Signals 8.1.2.4. NoC Initiator Intel FPGA IP Clock and Reset Signals 8.1.2.5. NoC Initiator Intel FPGA IP Platform Designer-Only Signals
8.2. NoC Clock Control Intel FPGA IP x
8.2.1. NoC Clock Control Intel FPGA IP Parameters 8.2.2. NoC Clock Control Intel FPGA IP Interfaces 8.2.3. NoC Clock Control Intel FPGA IP Platform Designer-only Signals
1. Answers to Top FAQs
2. Network-on-Chip (NoC) Overview
3. Hard Memory NoC in Intel® Agilex® 7 M-Series FPGAs
4. NoC Design Flow in Intel® Quartus® Prime Pro Edition
5. NoC Real-time Performance Monitoring
6. Simulating NoC Designs
7. NoC Power Estimation
8. Hard Memory NoC IP Reference
9. Document Revision History of Intel® Agilex® 7 M-Series FPGA Network-on-Chip (NoC) User Guide

4.6.1. Using Interface Planner

The following steps describe basic operation of the Interface Planner to place NoC design elements:

  1. Ensure that you have already run Analysis & Synthesis, as this document previously describes.
  2. To open the Interface Planner click Tools > Interface Planner,
  3. On the Flow control, click Initialize Interface Planner.
  4. On the Flow control, click View Assignments.
  5. On the Assignments tab, enable or disable specific or groups of project assignments to resolve any conflicts or experiment with different settings. You can filter the list of assignments by assignment name or status.
  6. Click Update Plan on the Flow control to apply the enabled project assignments to your interface plan.
  7. Click Plan Design on the Flow control to interactively place IP cores and other design elements in legal locations in the device periphery. All placeable elements, including NoC elements and periphery elements, appear in the Design Elements list. Refer to Recommended Placement Order for NoC Elements in Interface Planner.
  8. Use any of the following methods to place design elements in the Chip View:
    • Drag NoC elements from the Design Elements list and drop them onto available device resources in the Chip view. You may experience a small delay while dragging as Interface Planner calculates the legal locations.
    • To allow Interface Planner to place an unplaced design element in a legal location, right-click and select Autoplace Selected. You must use Autoplace Selected for all unplaced clocks.
    • Right-click an element in the Design Elements list, and then click Generate Legal Locations to display a list of Legal Locations for the element. Click any legal location in the list to highlight the location in the floorplan. Double-click any location in the list to place the element in the location.
  9. After making all necessary location assignments in Interface Planner, validate the placement by clicking Validate Plan in the Flow pane.
  10. To generate a Tcl script to apply the placement constraints to your project, click Export Constraints in the Flow pane. To automatically run the Tcl script, enable Apply Assignments.
    Figure 24. Export Physical Constraints from Interface Planner to Your Project


  11. To report whether the NoC initiator and target location placement allows your design to meet the bandwidth and transaction size requirements, click the Reports tab, and then double-click Report NoC Performance in the Tasks pane. For report details, refer to NoC Performance Reports in Interface Planner.
Note: Lower-speed memory protocols and other I/O functions that you implement in the GPIO-B blocks, and that bypass the NoC, can cause conflicts that prevent the use of certain initiator locations. Therefore, before assigning any initiator locations, place HBM2e and external memory controllers, as well as any fixed-location lower speed protocols or GPIO.

For more details on placing NoC initiators and targets, refer to the following related topics:

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