Altera Corporation

Leon Zheng

Martin Langhammer

Sergey Yuryevich Shumarayev

Nitin Prasad

Chiao Kai Hwang

Tim Tri Hoang

Steven Perry

Gregory W Starr

Paul Metzgen

Kumara Tharmalingam

Tien Duc Pham

William Hwang

Greg W Starr

Kazi Asaduzzaman

Paul B Ekas

Zhi Y Wong

Thungoc M Tran

Wanli Chang

Ali H Burney

Yu Xu

Sanjay K Charagulla

Mian Z Smith

Vinh Van Ho

Kang-Wei Lai

A multiplier-accumulator (MAC) block can be programmed to operate in one or more modes. When the MAC block implements at least one multiply-and-accumulate operation, the accumulator value can be zeroed without introducing clock latency or initialized in one clock cycle. To zero the accumulator value, the most significant bits (MSBs) of data representing zero can be input to the MAC block and sent directly to the add-subtract-accumulate unit. Alternatively, dedicated configuration bits can be set to clear the contents of a pipeline register for input to the add-subtract-accumulate unit.

Flexible accumulator in digital signal processing circuitry

A phase-locked loop circuit includes phase detection circuitry to generate a first control signal based on a phase comparison between first and second periodic signals. An oscillator circuit causes a frequency of a third periodic signal to vary based on the first control signal. A frequency divider circuit divides the frequency of the third periodic signal by a frequency division value to generate a frequency of the second periodic signal. A delta sigma modulator circuit controls the frequency division value based on second control signals. First storage circuits store the second control signals based on third control signals in response to a fourth periodic signal. A second storage circuit stores an output signal based on a fourth control signal. The fourth periodic signal is generated based on the output signal of the second storage circuit.

Techniques for generating fractional periodic signals

Integrated circuits having transceivers capable of high-speed (e.g., 1 Gbps) operation without dedicated phase-locked loop circuitry are provided. One such integrated circuit device may include one or more transceivers capable of transmitting and receiving serial signals of approximately 1 Gbps or greater, and a multi-purpose phase-locked loop capable of providing a multi-phase clock signal to the one or more transceivers.

Multi-purpose phase-locked loop for low cost transceiver

Saturation and rounding capabilities are implemented in MAC blocks to provide rounded and saturated outputs of multipliers and of add-subtract-accumulate circuitrs implemented using DSP. These features support any suitable format of value representation, including the x.15 format. Circuitry within the multipliers and the add-subtract-accumulate circuits implement the rounding and saturation features of the present invention.

Saturation and rounding in multiply-accumulate blocks

A demultiplexer circuit separates input data having different data rates into output data. A phase-locked loop circuit generates first clock signals having average frequencies that are based on a frequency of a second clock signal times a fractional, non-integer number. A serializer circuit serializes a set of the output data to generate serial data signals in response to one of the first clock signals generated by the phase-locked loop circuit.

In a programmable logic device having a specialized functional block incorporating multipliers and adders, multiplication operations that do not fit neatly into the available multipliers are performed partially in the multipliers of the specialized functional block and partially in multipliers configured in programmable logic of the programmable logic device. Unused resources of the specialized functional block, including adders, may be used to add together the partial products produced inside and outside the specialized functional block. Some adders configured in programmable logic of the programmable logic device also may be used for that purpose.

Programmable logic device with specialized functional block

A clock signal generator circuit that receives periodic signals has a delay circuit, first and second multiplexers, and flip-flops. The delay circuit delays the periodic signals to generate delayed signals. The first multiplexer selects one of the delayed signals in response to a first select signal to generate an output clock signal. The second multiplexer selects one of the periodic signals in response to a second select signal. The flip-flops generate the first and the second select signals in response to the periodic signal selected by the second multiplexer.

Techniques for selecting phases of clock signals

Techniques are provided for compensating for phase and timing delays in clock signals generated by phase-locked loops and delay-locked loops on integrated circuits. Circuit elements coupled in a feedback loop of a locked circuit can compensate for the timing and phase delays between an input pin and an output pin. Other circuit elements coupled in the feedback loop of a locked circuit can compensate for the delay between an input pin and a destination circuit element. Still other circuit elements coupled in an input reference path of a locked circuit preserve a timing relationship between input clock and input data signals. A clock signal and a data signal received at a destination circuit element have the same phase and timing relationship that exists between the input clock and input data signals at input pins.

Techniques for compensating delays in clock signals on integrated circuits

Adjustable transceiver circuitry is provided for programmable integrated circuits. The transceiver circuitry has a dynamic phase alignment circuit that can be used for aligning clock and data signals. The transceiver circuitry supports a phase-locked-loop source synchronous mode that can be used to receive data from transmitting integrated circuits that are clocked with a common clock. Each transmitting integrated circuit transmits a clock and associated data signals over a bus. The transceiver circuitry uses a master-slave architecture. A master dynamic phase alignment circuit in each transceiver receives the clock for that bus and selects a corresponding optimal clock phase to use in receiving input data for the bus from a multiphase clock. The master dynamic phase alignment circuit in each transceiver distributes the optimal clock phase to associated slave dynamic phase alignment circuits. Only a single phase-locked loop circuit is need to generate the multiphase clock.

Programmable logic device integrated circuit with dynamic phase alignment capabilities and shared phase-locked-loop circuitry

Techniques are provided for dynamically reconfiguring programmable circuit blocks on integrated circuits during user mode. First configuration bits are loaded from first configuration scan registers into second configuration scan registers during configuration mode. The first configuration bits are used to configure programmable settings of a programmable circuit block. During user mode, second configuration bits are transmitted from a pin to the second configuration scan registers without transferring the second configuration bits through the first configuration scan registers. The second configuration bits are used to reconfigure the programmable settings of the programmable circuit block during the user mode. Also, phase shift circuitry can dynamically shift the phase of an output clock signal by selecting a different input clock signal. The phase shift circuitry has a delay circuit that allows the phase of a high frequency clock signal to be shifted without causing glitches in the clock signal.

Techniques for reconfiguring programmable circuit blocks

Saturation and rounding capabilities are implemented in multiply-accumulate (MAC) blocks to provide rounded and saturated outputs of multipliers and of add-subtract-accumulate circuits implemented using DSP. These features support any suitable format of value representation, including the x.15 format. Circuitry within the multipliers and the add-subtract-accumulate circuits implement the rounding and saturation features of the present invention.

A programmable logic device is provided that includes a MAC block having mode splitting capabilities. Different modes of operation may be implemented simultaneously whereby the multipliers and other DSP circuitry of the MAC block may be allocated among the different modes of operation. For example, one multiplier may be used to implement a multiply mode while another two multipliers may be used to implement a sum of two multipliers mode.

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San Jose, CA, United States of America

Leon Zheng