Wiki

This version (23 Sep 2022 16:08) was approved by Iulia Moldovan.The Previously approved version (11 Jan 2022 13:22) is available.Diff

AXI_AD9783

The axi_ad9783 IP core interfaces to the AD9783 device. It is a dual DAC with 16 bits resolution, interfaced through LVDS, and with sample rates up to 500 MSPS. This documentation only covers the IP core and requires that one must be familiar with the device for a complete and better understanding.

More about the generic framework interfacing DACs can be read here: axi_dac_ip.

Features

  • AXI Memory-Mapped to Streaming control/status interface
  • PRBS monitoring
  • Internal DDS
  • BIST testing
  • Supports only Xilinx devices

Block Diagram

Functional Description

The axi_ad9783 cores architecture contains:

Parameters

Name Description Default Value
ID Instance identification number, if more than one AD9783 instance is used 0
FPGA_TECHNOLOGY Encoded value describing the technology/generation of the FPGA device (1 - 7series, 2 - UltraScale, 3 - UltraScale Plus) 0
FPGA_FAMILY Encoded value describing the family variant of the FPGA device(e.g., SX, GX, GT) 0
SPEED_GRADE Encoded value describing the FPGA's speed-grade 0
DEV_PACKAGE Encoded value describing the device package. The package might affect high-speed interfaces 0
DAC_DDS_TYPE 1 for CORDIC or 2 for Polynomial 1
DAC_DDS_CORDIC_DW CORDIC DDS data width 16
DAC_DDS_CORDIC_PHASE_DW CORDIC DDS phase width 16
DAC_DATAPATH_DISABLE Disable DAC processing blocks. Disables DDS 0
Make sure these parameters have the appropriate values set.

I/O Interface

Interface Pin Type Description
LVDS TX interface signals
dac_clk_in_p & n input LVDS input clock; comes from DCOP/N of the AD9783 chip
dac_clk_out_p & n output LVDS output clock; goes to DCIP/N of the AD9783 chip
dac_data_out_p & n output[15:0] LVDS output data lines
Clock and reset
dac_div_clk output Frequency divided clock used for clocking the DMA and the UPACK; it is 1/4 compared to the reference input clock
dac_rst output Core reset signal
DMA_TX interface
dac_enable_* output If set, the channel is enabled (one for each channel)
dac_valid output Indicates valid data request for all channels
dac_ddata_* input[64:0] Transmitted data output (one for each channel)
dac_dunf input Data underflow, must be connected to the DMA
AXI_S_MM interface
s_axi_* Standard AXI Slave Memory Map interface

Device Interface Description

The interface also provides a single clock tree for the entire core. This clock uses a global buffer that has the minimum skew all across the die. On Xilinx devices, this is done via the IBUFGDS, BUFGCE_DIV and BUFG primitives. The clock dac_clk_in_p is passed through these primitives in order to obtain the divided clock: through IBUFGDS, then BUFGCE_DIV to BUFG. The core and the interface run at the same clock frequency.

Internal Interface Description

The main purpose of all (including this) ADI IP cores is to provide a common, well-defined internal interface within the FPGA. This interface consists of the following signals per channel, except for VALID which is common to all channels.

VALID

It is always set to logic 1 and indicates a valid sample on each DATA port. Because it is in the transmit (DAC) direction, this indicates the current sample is being read by the core.

ENABLE

The enable signal is only for software use and it is controlled by the corresponding register bit. The core simply reflects the programmed bit as an output port. In ADI reference projects, this bit is used to activate the channel that one is interested in. It is then used by the UPACK core to route the data based on total number of channels and the selected number of channels. As an example, AXI_AD9783 supports a total of 2 channels, 64 bits each. Because the SERDES factor was chosen to be 8, we have 4 samples of 16 bits each, on I channel and Q channel also, resulting in DMA with 128 bits as data width.

DATA

The DATA is the raw analog samples, and 4096 samples generated by PRBS are sent. It follows two simple rules.

  1. The samples are always 16 bits. In the transmit direction, if the DAC data width is less than 16 bits, the most significant bits are used. This allows the same destination portable across different DAC data widths. In other words, if the source is generating a 16 bits tone, the signal appears the same across a 12 bit, 14 bit or 16 bit DAC with only the corresponding amplitude change. The source can thus be independent of the number of bits supported by DAC.
  2. The DATA is received and transmitted with most significant sample “newest” regardless of the channel width. In other words, the most significant sample is the “newest” sample. If the total channel width is 64 bits, it carries 4 samples (16 bits) per clock. If we were to name these samples as S3 (bits 63 down to 48), S2 (bits 47 down to 32), S1 (bits 31 down to 16) and S0 (bits 15 down to 0), the following is true. In the transmit direction, S0 is sent first and S3 is sent last to the DAC. The analog samples are S0, S1, S2 and S3 across time with S0 being the oldest and S3 being the newest sample.

Parallel data port interface

The parallel port data interface consists of up to 18 differential signals, dac_clk_out_*, dac_clk_in_*, and up to 16 data lines (dac_data_out_*[15:0]).
DCO is the output clock generated by the AD9783 that is used to clock out the data from the digital data engine.
The data lines transmit the multiplexed I and Q data words for the I and Q DACs, respectively.
DCI provides timing information about the parallel data and signals the I/Q status of the data.
The incoming LVDS data is latched by an internally generated clock referred to as the data sampling signal (DSS). DSS is a delayed version of the main DAC clock signal.
The clock input signal provides timing information about the parallel data, as well as indicating the destination (that is, I DAC or Q DAC) of the data. The data that is processed on rising edge will be outputted on the I DAC, and the data that is on falling edge will be outputted on Q DAC (see figure below).

Calibration of the device

Calibrating the device means finding the proper value for the SMP_DLY register (see datasheet) in order for the PRBS function (PN23 in this case) to work properly when generating the 4096 samples of data.
The BIST feature in the AD9783 is a simple type adder and is a user synchronizable BIST feature. When a reading is performed, it adds up all the data that was generated on the rising edges of the dac_div_clk and it writes it in the registers accessible by the user: the low part of the result is written in register 0x1B, and the high part in 0x1C. For the sum of data from falling edges, read 0x1D and 0x1E respectively.

register 0x1A <- 0x20
register 0x1A <- 0x00 # to clear the BIST registers 
register 0x1A <- 0x80 # enable BIST
# 4096 samples generated by PN23 are sent 
# send zeroes
register 0x1A <- 0xC0 # perform BIST read
# read registers 0x1B, 0x1C for the sum of data from rising edges
# read registers 0x1D, 0x1E for the sum of data from falling edges

In register 0x1A, write 0x20 then 0x00 to clear the BIST registers while the IP is writing zeros to the data bits. To enable BIST, write 0x80 to register 0x1A. Afterwards, 4096 samples of data are generated by PN23 PRBS and are sent to the data inputs.
When all samples are sent, the IP is continuously sending zeros after the samples, while the BIST read is being performed. Sending zeroes after the samples is required in order to maintain the sums unchanged in the registers.
Perform a BIST read by writing 0xC0 to register 0x1A to receive the unique sum of rising edge data in register 0x1B and register 0x1C and a unique sum of falling edge data in register 0x1D and register 0x1E. These register contents must always give the same values for the same samples each time they are sent.
In order to change what data is sent, the DAC_DDS_SEL register value should be changed. To send PN23, 0x9 should be written in the register. The address for the DAC_DDS_SEL register is calculated by adding 0x418 (for the first channel) to the offset found in the devicetree, for the device.

Register map

Register map

The register map of the core contains instances of several generic register maps like ADC common, ADC channel, DAC common, DAC channel etc. The following table presents the base addresses of each instance, after that can be found the detailed description of each generic register map. The absolute address of a register should be calculated by adding the instance base address to the registers relative address.

Register map - Base addresses for axi_ad9783

Address Name Description
DWORD BYTE
0x0000 0x0000 BASE See the Base (common to all cores) table for more detail
0x1000 0x4000 TX COMMON See the DAC Common table for more detail
0x1000 0x4000 TX CHANNELS See the DAC Channel table for more detail

Base (common to all cores)

Click to expand regmap

DAC Common (axi_ad)

Click to expand regmap

DAC Channel (axi_ad*)

Click to expand regmap

Software Guidelines

The software for this IP can be found as part of the ZCU102 Reference Design at: ADI Linux repository.
The IP expects the software run a calibration at least once. It has to find out what value for the SMP_DLY (see in datasheet) is good for the PRBS to work.

References

resources/fpga/docs/axi_ad9783.txt · Last modified: 23 Sep 2022 16:08 by Iulia Moldovan