Electronics > FPGA

issues with synthesis and implementation of quad SPI flash controller

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OM222O:
I have written a state machine to act as a quad SPI controller for W25Q128JV Serial NOR flash ICs from Winbond. I tested the design in simulation and the waveform looks as expected based on the datasheet (page 49 Read Manufacturer / Device ID Quad I/O ). Here is the result of the simulation:

SCLK and the 4 IO lines behave correctly and on the rising edges of output valid, the data that is read back is EF 17 which is the correct manufacturer ID and device ID. After this step I moved to create a block design and test this on actual hardware (I'm using a CMOD S7 board), so I create this block design in Vivado:

pmod_2 is /CS, pmod_1 is SCLK and data[3:0] is the IO bus.

After this, I created an HDL wrapper for the block design, but after synthesis, I got an error:

--- Quote ---[Synth 8-5799] Converted tricell instance
--- End quote ---


for all of the data lines. After a bit of googling, I found this where someone suggested that I should click on generate block design and choose the global option. That did help a bit but now I'm getting this error instead:

--- Quote ---[Synth 8-5744] Inout buffer is not created at top module design_1_wrapper for the pin data[0], other connections may not have buffer connection ["d:/FPGA_Projects/QSPI_controller/QSPI_controller.gen/sources_1/bd/design_1/hdl/design_1_wrapper.v":12]
--- End quote ---

I'm not sure what's wrong with data[0] specifically. I tried running implementation and generating bitstream anyways, but to no surprise, it doesn't actually work and something seems to be broken. This is a really strange issue and I have no clue how to fix this. Please let me know what I'm doing wrong. I have attached the Verilog codes if you want to inspect them (tb.v is the testbench, constraints.xdc is the pin mapping and the other 3 Verilog files are the modules that you see on the block diagram).

Before you ask, I have checked the pin mapping and it works in other projects, just not this one.

and my pin mapping in the constraints file is:

--- Code: ---set_property -dict {PACKAGE_PIN J2 IOSTANDARD LVCMOS33} [get_ports pmod_1]
set_property -dict {PACKAGE_PIN H2 IOSTANDARD LVCMOS33} [get_ports pmod_2]
#set_property -dict {PACKAGE_PIN H4 IOSTANDARD LVCMOS33} [get_ports pmod_3];
#set_property -dict {PACKAGE_PIN F3 IOSTANDARD LVCMOS33} [get_ports pmod_4];
set_property -dict {PACKAGE_PIN H3 IOSTANDARD LVCMOS33} [get_ports {data[0]}]
set_property -dict {PACKAGE_PIN H1 IOSTANDARD LVCMOS33} [get_ports {data[1]}]
set_property -dict {PACKAGE_PIN G1 IOSTANDARD LVCMOS33} [get_ports {data[2]}]
set_property -dict {PACKAGE_PIN F4 IOSTANDARD LVCMOS33} [get_ports {data[3]}]
--- End code ---

Bassman59:

--- Quote from: OM222O on May 15, 2022, 08:02:14 am ---After this, I created an HDL wrapper for the block design, but after synthesis, I got an error:

--- Quote ---[Synth 8-5799] Converted tricell instance
--- End quote ---


--- End quote ---

Seems like the SPI_Controller_0 block has a tristate buffer on data[3:0] and however it's handled is not correct. And without seeing the code in that module we can't really diagnose what's wrong.

OM222O:
you can download the QSPI_files.zip which is attached to see the code. I really don't understand why this is happening because the tri-state buffer (bidirectional data port) is directly connected to external pins.

OM222O:
I have tried to instantiate the SPI controller at the top module many times without much success, if anyone can help me create a top.v with all of the modules connected together, I would really appreciate it.

Bassman59:
Your code assigns to the shift clock as follows:


--- Code: ---assign sclk = (CE) ? clk : 1'b0;
--- End code ---

which is certainly legal Verilog, but I wonder if the synthesis can figure out that it needs to insert a GBUFCE (or whatever it's called) to actually implement this function. I don't recall off-hand whether the Spartan 7 fabric will allow you to gate a clock like this.

Consider using the output DDR primitive, clocked by clk and the rising-edge input driven by CE and the falling-edge input tied to '0'. That's how you can forward a clock you can gate.

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