Altera Corporation

Xilinx, Inc.

Dynalogic

Arch Zaliznyak

Chong H Lee

Ramanand Venkata

Sergey Yuryevich Shumarayev

Henry Y Lui

Thungoc M Tran

Surinder Singh

Toan Thanh Nguyen

Rakesh H Patel

Shoujun Wang

Tim Tri Hoang

Suresh M Menon

Vinson Chan

John D Lam

Wai-Bor Leung

Yogendra Kumar Bobra

Wilson Wong

Atul V Ghia

Tin H Lai

William W Bereza

Paul T Sasaki

Victor Maruri

John Dung-Ngoc Lam

Madhavi Kola

Serializer circuitry for high-speed serial data transmitter circuitry on a programmable logic device ('PLD') or the like includes circuitry for converting parallel data having any of several data widths to serial data. The circuitry can also operate at any frequency in a wide range of frequencies, and can make use of reference clock signals having any of several relationships to the parallel data rate and/or the serial data rate. The circuitry is configurable/re-configurable in various respects, at least some of which configuration/re-configuration can be dynamically controlled (i.e., during user-mode operation of the PLD).

Serializer circuitry for high-speed serial data transmitters on programmable logic device integrated circuits

A circuit includes first and second aligner circuits and a deskew circuit. The first aligner circuit is operable to align a first input serial data signal with a control signal to generate a first aligned serial data signal. The second aligner circuit is operable to align a second input serial data signal with the control signal to generate a second aligned serial data signal. The deskew circuit is operable to reduce skew between the first and the second aligned serial data signals to generate first and second output serial data signals.

Techniques for aligning and reducing skew in serial data signals

A high speed serial interface comprises a rectilinear array of rows and columns of contact sites on a substrate. In the first four columns, pairs of transmitter and receiver contacts alternate row-by-row with pairs of ground contacts In the fifth column, there is a permanent (or hard) ground contact adjacent to each transmitter or receiver contact pair located in a row in the third and fourth columns and the remaining contacts in the fifth column are general purpose input/output (GPIO) contacts. As a result, up to 50 percent of the contacts in the fifth column may be GPIO contacts. In the sixth column, all the contacts are GPIO contacts.

High speed serial interface

One embodiment relates to an integrated circuit having a plurality of four-channel serial interface modules. Each of the plurality of four-channel serial interface modules includes a first physical medium attachment (PMA) channel circuit, a second PMA channel circuit adjacent to the first PMA channel circuit, a third PMA channel circuit adjacent to the second PMA channel circuit, a fourth PMA channel circuit adjacent to the third PMA channel circuit, and at least one phase-locked loop (PLL) circuit which is programmably coupled to each of the first, second, third and fourth PMA channel circuits. Other embodiments and features are also disclosed.

Heterogeneous high-speed serial interface system with phase-locked loop architecture and clock distribution system

An integrated circuit includes a local clock network that is operable to provide a first clock signal and an interface circuit that is coupled to receive the first clock signal from the local clock network. The interface circuit is operable to generate a second clock signal based on the first clock signal. A clock line is coupled to the interface circuit. The clock line has a fixed length. The second clock signal is provided to a multiplexer circuit through the clock line. The multiplexer circuit provides a third clock signal based on the second clock signal. Another clock network is coupled to receive the third clock signal from the multiplexer circuit.

Techniques for providing clock signals in clock networks

Disclosed are apparatus and methods for providing a serial interface with shared datapaths. The apparatus and methods share or re-use components from multiple lower-speed datapaths so as to efficiently provide a higher-speed datapath. In one embodiment, physical coding sublayer circuitry of the lower-speed datapaths is also used by the higher-speed datapath. In another embodiment, physical media access circuitry of the lower-speed data paths is also used by the higher-speed datapath. Other embodiments, aspects and features are also disclosed.

Apparatus and methods for serial interfaces with shared datapaths

A method and apparatus is provided for standby voltage offset cancellation at inputs to a comparator within a receiver channel. Each of a first comparator input and second comparator input is isolated from an input signal such that each of the first and second comparator inputs attains a respective standby voltage level. A voltage level on one of the first and second comparator inputs is incrementally changed, while the output signal of the comparator is monitored. Upon detecting a state transition in the output signal of the comparator, the incremental changing of the voltage level on the one comparator input is stopped at a final voltage level setting. The final voltage level setting is stored in a computer memory for reference in setting of the voltage level at the one comparator input so as to compensate for the standby voltage offset at the inputs to the comparator.

Method and apparatus for standby voltage offset cancellation

Deserializer circuitry for high-speed serial data receiver circuitry on a programmable logic device ('PLD') or the like includes circuitry for converting serial data to parallel data having any of several data widths. The circuitry can also operate at any frequency in a wide range of frequencies. The circuitry is configurable/re-configurable in various respects, at least some of which configuration/re-configuration can be dynamically controlled (i.e., during user-mode operation of the PLD).

Deserializer circuitry for high-speed serial data receivers on programmable logic device integrated circuits

A skew-tolerant, glitch-free reset distribution apparatus and method are provided in an intellectual property (IP) block that supports a multi-channel input/output protocol. During reset mode, synchronizers are used to create more predictable timing, to pipeline the propagation delay, and to tolerate RC-induced skews of up to a clock period in routing a reset signal to all the channels and within the channels in an IP block. Two control signals, which are available from programmable logic resource core circuitry, are used to control the input of the reset signal into the IP block. Because the control signals are designed to be glitch-free, the reset signal is therefore also glitch-free, thus preventing the IP block from inadvertently transitioning into or out of reset mode.

Apparatus and method for reset distribution

Circuitry is provided that conditions a differential input signal such that when the signal is received by a multi-standard differential input buffer, the buffer is able to process the conditioned signal without pronounced increases in propagation delay, thereby keeping signal jitter to a minimum. The circuitry further enables input buffers to operate according to desired operating parameters even when the supply voltage powering the input buffer is relatively low. The circuitry operates by shifting the common-mode voltage to a range that puts the input buffer in a favorable common-mode voltage range of operation. The circuitry may be coupled with a programmably controlled amplifier that amplifies the amplitude of the conditioned differential signal prior to being received by the input buffer. Amplifying the signal prevents problems typically associated with data-dependent jitter and intersymbol interference by boosting the voltage amplitude to a level that is readily processed by the input buffer.

Circuits and techniques for conditioning differential signals

A field programmable logic device features an active device driver employing CMOS circuitry that includes a complementary CMOS inverter in electrical communication with a tri-state CMOS inverter, with the tri-state CMOS inverter defining a data input and a data output of the active device driver. The CMOS complementary inverter has an input node and an output node. The CMOS tri-state inverter is coupled to the input node, defining a control input for the active device driver.

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San Jose, CA, United States of America

Arch Zaliznyak