Article ID: 000086751 Content Type: Troubleshooting Last Reviewed: 08/11/2022

Why do the External Memory Interface DQ and DQS waveforms sometimes have poor signal quality when measured at the FPGA pin on a memory read ?

Environment

    Quartus® II Subscription Edition
    Intel® Quartus® Prime Pro Edition
    External Memory Interfaces Intel® Arria® 10 FPGA IP
    External Memory Interfaces Intel® Stratix® 10 FPGA IP
    Memory Interfaces with ALTMEMPHY
    Memory Interfaces with UniPHY
BUILT IN - ARTICLE INTRO SECOND COMPONENT
Description

Even if the DQ and DQS signals are terminated correctly using parallel OCT (FPGA on-chip termination), the read DQ and DQS waveforms may show reflections or non-monotonic behaviour in IBIS model simulations and in hardware measurements when measured at the FPGA pin.
The reason for this is that FPGAs can have a relatively large package delay. Therefore the measurement at the FPGA pin is not at the receiver on the FPGA die where it is important but part way along the transmission line.
Package delay files are available on the Intel website under the Tools ,Models, and Libraries section.
 

Resolution

If performing IBIS model simulations, verify that the read DQ and DQS waveforms have good signal integrity when measured at the FPGA die.
If the waveform does not have good signal integrity when measured on hardware with a high quality probe, run the IBIS model simulation with a representative load of the oscilloscope probe. Observe the waveform  at the pin and compare with the hardware measurement.
If they are similar and the IBIS simulation waveform at the die looks good, then the waveform at the die can also be expected to be good.

Refer to this KDB article for information about the memory data signal IBIS model and dynamic termination. The Intel external memory interface IP uses dynamic OCT on the data signals.

Related Products

This article applies to 4 products

Intel® Programmable Devices
Intel® Cyclone®
Intel® Stratix®
Intel® Arria®

1