Designing with Multi-Gigabit Serial I/O

Course Description

Learn how to employ serial transceivers in your 7 series FPGA design. Understand and utilize the features of the serial transceiver blocks, such as 8B/10B and 64B/66B encoding, channel bonding, clock correction, and comma detection. Additional topics include use of the 7 Series FPGAs Transceiver Wizard, synthesis and implementation considerations, board design as it relates to the transceivers, and test and debugging. This course combines lectures with practical hands-on labs.

Release Date

Level

Connectivity 3

Training Duration

3 days

Who Should Attend?

FPGA designers and logic designers

Prerequisites

• Verilog or VHDL experience or the Designing with Verilog or Designing with VHDL course
• Familiarity with logic design (state machines and synchronous design)
• Basic knowledge of FPGA architecture and AMD Xilinx implementation tools is helpful
• Familiarity with serial I/O basics and high-speed serial I/O standards is also helpful

Skills Gained

After completing this comprehensive training, you will have the necessary skills to:

• Describe and utilize the ports and attributes of the serial transceiver in 7 series FPGAs
• Effectively utilize the following features of the gigabit transceivers:
  • 8B/10B and other encoding/decoding, comma detection, clock correction, and channel bonding
  • Pre-emphasis and linear equalization
• Use the 7 Series FPGAs Transceivers Wizard to instantiate GT primitives in a design
• Access appropriate reference material for board design issues involving the power supply, reference clocking, and trace design

Course Outline

Day 1

• 7 Series FPGAs Overview
• 7 Series FPGAs Transceivers Overview
• 7 Series FPGAs Transceivers Clocking and Resets
• 8B/10B Encoder and Decoder
• Lab 1: 8B/10B Encoding and Bypass
• Commas and Deserializer Alignment
• Lab 2: Commas and Data Alignment

Day 2

• RX Elastic Buffer and Clock Correction
• Lab 3: Clock Correction
• Channel Bonding
• Lab 4: Channel Bonding
• Transceiver Wizard Overview
• Lab 5: Transceiver Core Generation
• Lab 6: Simulation
• Transceiver Implementation
• Lab 7: Implementation
• Physical Media Attachments

Day 3

• 64B/66B Encoding and the Gearbox
• Lab 8: 64B/66B Encoding
• Transceiver Board Design Considerations
• Transceiver Test and Debugging
• Lab 9: Transceiver Debugging
• Lab 10: IBERT Lab

• Lab 11: System Lab
• Transceiver Application Examples

Lab Descriptions

• Lab 1: 8B/10B Encoding and Bypass – Utilize the 8B/10B encoder and decoder and observe running disparity. Learn how to bypass the 8B/10B encoder and decoder.
• Lab 2: Commas and Data Alignment – Use programmable comma detection to align a serial data stream.
• Lab 3: Clock Correction – Utilize the attributes and ports associated with clock correction to compensate for frequency differences on the TX and RX clocks.
• Lab 4: Channel Bonding – Modify a design to use two transceivers bonded together to form one virtual channel.
• Lab 5: Transceiver Core Generation – Use the 7 Series FPGAs Transceivers Wizard to create instantiation templates.
• Lab 6: Simulation – Simulate the transceiver IP using the IP example design.
• Lab 7: Implementation – Implement the transceiver IP using the IP example design.
• Lab 8: 64B/66B Encoding – Generate a 64B/66B core by using the 7 Series FPGAs Transceivers Wizard, simulate the design, and analyze the results.
• Lab 9: Transceiver Debugging – Debug the transceiver IP using the IP example design and Vivado debug cores.
• Lab 10: IBERT Lab – Create an IBERT design to verify physical links.
• Lab 11: System Lab – Perform all design steps from planning the design, generating the core, integrating the core into a design, simulating, implementing and debugging the design, and optimizing the link parameter using an evaluation board.