Description
Altera's new development boards featuring the Stratix III and Cyclone III have a SSRAM/PSRAM component made By Samsung called a UtRAM. There is not component in SOPC builder for this memory. It is easy to connect it up and use it asynchronously however for any sort of "real" performance you must communication with the part synchronously. This component does exactly that. It is fully synchronous for reads and writes. It's slave interface supports pipeline transactions for efficient memory untilization.
Contents
While the component should work for both the Cyclone III 3c120 board and the Stratix III 3sl150 board only the reference design for the Cyclone III is currently included here.
The component
Because UtRAM data and address lines are shared with several other peripherals in the system such as the flash and the maxII, it was necessary to create the interface to the UtRAM as two separate components. This is because the Tristate Bridge does not allow you to add components that aren’t just simple wires. To overcome this there are two components utram32_interface and the utram32_controller. The “controller” component has all the smarts to drive the UtRAM. The “interface” component is needed to get arbitrated access to the external shared bus. All masters desiring to access the UtRAM must do so through the controller. Accessing the interface directly will give undesirable results. More details about the can be found at UTRAM component v9.0.doc
3s120 port
The example port for the 3c120 board simply takes the standard 3c120 reference design and adds the UtRAM controller and interface. This interface can then be accessed by any master and will run faster than 100Mhz.
Instructions
Downloading the example
Download the component first utrram_2m_x16_x2.zip and unzip into any of the following locations.
1- c:/altera/x.x/ip/custom_components/ ( It can have any name under the ip subdirectory except altera. )
2- The ip subdirectory under the project you wish to us the component in.
3 -In any directory on your system that does not include spaces in the path name. The entire path name of this directory must not contain spaces, so on Windows systems you should avoid putting these in the "My Documents" folder, or on your "Desktop" since these locations are subdirectories of the "Documents and Settings" path, and that would mean that these locations inherit the spaces in that part of the path name. You will then need to add this to the search path in sopc builer. Do this by going to Tools/Options menu and selecting "IP search path". Once the path is in place F5 will refresh the component list and it should be selectable.
The example design in the form of a .qar ( quartus Archive). Download psram_cycloneIII_3c120_niosII_standard.qar to any desired directory. Remember the path must not include a spaces. Launch quartus and open the .qar. Quartus will unpack the design and you are ready to go.
Requirements
3C120 port
This component and example design are supported under Quartus 9.0 and higher. Timing parameters are critical, SDC constraints are included in the reference design. This component requires a dedicated clock output to drive the UtRAM clock signal. This clock needs to have a phase adjusted clock. See the component documentation for more details.