Chapter 5: Clock Networks and PLLs in Arria II Devices
5–17
Clock Networks in Arria II Devices
December 2010
Altera Corporation
Arria II Device Handbook Volume 1: Device Interfaces and Integration
In Arria II devices, the
clkena
signals are supported at the clock network level instead
of at the PLL output counter level. This allows you to gate off the clock even when a
PLL is not used. You can also use the
clkena
signals to control the dedicated external
clocks from the PLLs. Arria II devices also have an additional metastability register
that aids in asynchronous enable or disable of the GCLK and RCLK networks. You
can optionally bypass this register in the Quartus II software.
shows a waveform example for the clock output enable. The
clkena
signal is synchronous to the falling edge of the clock output.
The PLL can remain locked independent of the
clkena
signals because the
loop-related counters are not affected. This feature is useful for applications that
require a low power or sleep mode. The
clkena
signal can also disable clock outputs if
the system is not tolerant of frequency over-shoot during resynchronization.
Clock Source Control for PLLs
The clock input to Arria II PLLs comes from clock input multiplexers. The clock
multiplexer inputs come from dedicated clock input pins, PLLs through the GCLK
and RCLK networks, or from dedicated connections between adjacent corner and
center PLLs (Arria II GX devices) or from dedicated connections between adjacent
top/bottom and left/right PLLs (Arria II GZ devices). For Arria II GX devices, the
clock input sources to corner (
PLL
_
1
,
PLL
_
2
,
PLL
_
3
,
PLL
_
4
) and center PLLs (
PLL
_
5
and
PLL
_
6
. For Arria II GZ devices, the clock input sources to
top/bottom and left/right PLLs (L2, L3, T1, T2, B1, B2, R2, and R3) are shown in
The multiplexer select lines are set in the configuration file only. When configured,
you cannot change this block without loading a new
.sof
or
.pof
. The Quartus II
software automatically sets the multiplexer select signals depending on the clock
sources selected in your design.
Figure 5–13. clkena Signals for Arria II Devices
Note to
(1) You can use the
clkena
signals to enable or disable the GCLK and RCLK networks or the
PLL<#>_CLKOUT
pins.
clkena
output of AND
gate with R2 bypassed
output of
clock
select multiplexer
output of AND
gate with R2 not bypassed