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Xconnect Xlink / Link Problem

Posted: Sat Jun 17, 2017 7:31 pm
by Bambus
Hi all,

I connected two Startkits (SK1 and SK2) via 20cm ribbon cable using Link C Pins as labeled on the bottom of the boards:
SK1 SK2
1OU 1IN
0OU 0IN
0IN 0OU
1IN 1OU
I am running the code from AN01024, transmit code on one startkit, receive code on the other one. I also changed LINK_NUM to 0 since I didn't get any "got credit" message with LINK_NUM 3. I am sending characters but I am not receiving the correct data most of the time. Also the rate is way too low.

Any ideas on what I am doing wrong? I was really looking forward to using Xconnect.

Thanks for your help!

Edit: All 9 lights of the LED Matrix are switching on and off at a high frequency (looks like low brightness)

Re: Xconnect Xlink / Link Problem

Posted: Sat Jun 17, 2017 9:05 pm
by mon2
Hi. Just a few high level comments at this time.

1) The signals are quite fast on this interface so if using with a direct cable - the cables must be kept short. Review the related docs on the interface for guidance.

2) Alternatively to use longer cables, you must insert lvds transceivers and that is what we did for a pending Startkit compatible sliceboard. Then you should be able to cascade as many kits as you wish. We used RJ45 connectors on our version with lvds transceivers. Have not yet assembled the boards.

Re: Xconnect Xlink / Link Problem

Posted: Sat Jun 17, 2017 11:01 pm
by Bambus
Thank you mon2.

I found this document, which states that a setup with a 15cm ribbon cable is working without errors. Maybe 15cm is the maximum possible length without LVDS and shielded cables.

Re: Xconnect Xlink / Link Problem

Posted: Sun Jun 18, 2017 2:46 am
by mon2
That is the document I had in mind to reference :)

Hey - have a great idea - are you interested in beta testing our LVDS board we designed last year ? It will be our next lifetime before we get the 'free time' to do the same with our current schedule. Let us know and we can dig around on the last status of these PCBs. Fairly sure we have the bare PCBs in house and also some required ganged RJ45 connectors. The premise is to use off the shelf CAT5 / CAT6 cable to interconnect between StartKits. The slice board we designed features the referenced LVDS transceivers. Where are you located ? In North America or Europe or ??

Re: Xconnect Xlink / Link Problem

Posted: Sun Jun 18, 2017 6:48 am
by data
With just StartKits and nothing else, you may not get very good results past about 6cm, unless you slow the link down a great deal; that was my experience anyway. With decent buffers, and termination resistors, you may get to 15cm or more even at relatively high rates.

In our production application we keep things to about 80MBPS (divider 5 IIRC) for safety. Our cable lengths are mostly quite short -- 3-4cm. We do have a longer cable though it is running "native" Xlink and not a dynamic version as described in that app note.

Re: Xconnect Xlink / Link Problem

Posted: Sun Jun 18, 2017 1:44 pm
by Bambus
data wrote:With just StartKits and nothing else, you may not get very good results past about 6cm, unless you slow the link down a great deal; that was my experience anyway. With decent buffers, and termination resistors, you may get to 15cm or more even at relatively high rates.

In our production application we keep things to about 80MBPS (divider 5 IIRC) for safety. Our cable lengths are mostly quite short -- 3-4cm. We do have a longer cable though it is running "native" Xlink and not a dynamic version as described in that app note.
Thanks for your help.

How can I slow down the link? I found this document about the link architecture, it tells me to look in the data sheet of the chip for the link-register map. Which data sheet do I need for startkit? Is there any other documentation I need to program the link appropriately?

Is there an application note for the native Xlink? Or can you give me a minimalistic example?

Thank you,
Bambus

Re: Xconnect Xlink / Link Problem

Posted: Mon Jun 19, 2017 7:18 pm
by data
If you are using a "normal" link, you can set the link speed by editing the XN file. The <Link> node has an attribute called Delays, which is two numbers separated by a comma, for example 4,4. The first number is the inter-token delay, which sets the delay between tokens. The second is the intra-token delay, which sets the delay between bits (symbols) within tokens. The delay time is (AFAIK) the number of system clock cycles, so if you have a 400MHz system, a delay of 4 will get you 400MHz / 4 = 100MHz.

With the dynamic link, you set this up yourself, by hand. In AN01024 you will find the intra-token and inter-token delays configured in link.xc, using the defines INTER_DELAY and INTRA_DELAY. In my copy these are set to 1 which may result in something like 400MHz clocks -- you would almost certainly want to set these to something a bit more reasonable, like 4 or 5 (we usually use 5). At my company we have written a library which deals with this a bit more elegantly, but AN01024 does demonstrate the basic elements.

Re: Xconnect Xlink / Link Problem

Posted: Tue Aug 22, 2017 6:21 pm
by Bambus
Hi, its me again. I have run into a dead end when trying to find out how to transmit integers via xlink. When I try

Code: Select all

int data;
c :> data;
in the dynamic xlink demo, I get a resource exception (ET_ILLEGAL_RESOURCE). Seems like I only can receive bytes one by one. I found the following table in the xCONNECT Architecture pdf:
Name Value Description
READN 0x80 Read data
READ1 0x81 Read one byte
READ2 0x82 Read two bytes
READ4 0x83 Read four bytes
READ8 0x84 Read eight bytes
WRITEN 0x85 Write data
WRITE1 0x86 Write one byte
WRITE2 0x87 Write two bytes
WRITE4 0x88 Write four bytes
WRITE8 0x89 Write eight bytes
CALL 0x8a Call code at the specified address
If I understand correctly, there is a way to write and read integers by sending 0x83 and 0x88 as control tokens to the switch. I used outct to do this, but then I get an ET_LINK_ERROR. Am I doing this completely wrong? I don't want to send my data cut into bytes and put them back together on the receiving end. Would be very nice, if someone had an elegant solution.

Thank you!

Re: Xconnect Xlink / Link Problem

Posted: Tue Aug 22, 2017 6:35 pm
by data
The ET_ILLEGAL_RESOURCE exception in this case may indicate that there is something wrong with the chanend variable. Make sure that it is properly initialised.

Also, when using statically-routed chanends as is done in the demo, you will usually not have much luck with the input and output operators, because those expand to extra instructions which are designed to work as part of a synchronisation protocol.

Instead, you should use the outuint / outuchar / inuint / inuchar functions defined in xs1.h. These expand to IN and OUT instructions and do not attempt any extra synchronisation with the other end. outuint is probably what you are looking for in this case; it will transmit 32 bits at once.

Re: Xconnect Xlink / Link Problem

Posted: Tue Aug 22, 2017 6:46 pm
by Bambus
data wrote:The ET_ILLEGAL_RESOURCE exception in this case may indicate that there is something wrong with the chanend variable. Make sure that it is properly initialised.

Also, when using statically-routed chanends as is done in the demo, you will usually not have much luck with the input and output operators, because those expand to extra instructions which are designed to work as part of a synchronisation protocol.

Instead, you should use the outuint / outuchar / inuint / inuchar functions defined in xs1.h. These expand to IN and OUT instructions and do not attempt any extra synchronisation with the other end. outuint is probably what you are looking for in this case; it will transmit 32 bits at once.
The chanend variable works with char data; c:> data; . How can I initialize c to work with int?

Thank you for the inuint/outuint suggestion! But I believe I need to initialize the chanend accordingly to work with integers. Is there a manual on how to do this for different cases?