FPGA Trigger Net for Synchronized Multi-Chip Waveform Capture
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing multiple FPGA systems face challenges in synchronously capturing waveforms, leading to confusion and inefficiencies in debugging circuit design prototypes, as internal logic analyzers currently capture data independently, lacking synchronization across FPGAs.
Innovation Solution
The implementation of synchronous triggers through trigger net circuitry, including a multiplexer and programmable logic devices, allows each logic analyzer to capture waveforms simultaneously, synchronized by a control signal from a host interface, ensuring all FPGAs capture data at the same time.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If internal logic analyzers capture data independently in multiple FPGA systems, then each FPGA can be debugged individually, but synchronization across FPGAs is lost leading to confusion and inefficiency
Solution Approach 1:
A trigger net is introduced as an intermediary signal path that connects all FPGA logic analyzers. This trigger net carries a common trigger signal that simultaneously activates all logic analyzers across multiple FPGAs, enabling synchronized waveform capture while maintaining individual debugger access to each FPGA.
Solution Approach 2:
The trigger generation and distribution function is merged into a unified trigger net that serves all FPGAs. Instead of each FPGA having independent trigger mechanisms, the system combines trigger control into a single distributed network that coordinates all logic analyzers, achieving synchronization without sacrificing individual accessibility.
2Device complexity
If each logic analyzer captures waveforms independently, then individual FPGA debugging is simplified, but correlated events across FPGAs cannot be analyzed simultaneously
Solution Approach 1:
The trigger net acts as a mediator that distributes a single trigger event to all logic analyzers simultaneously. This intermediary mechanism ensures that all FPGAs capture waveforms at the same moment without requiring complex coordination logic within each individual logic analyzer, thus maintaining simplicity while achieving precise synchronization.
3Productivity
If asynchronous waveform capture is used in multiple FPGAs, then each logic analyzer operates independently, but debugging correlated circuit behavior becomes confused and inefficient
Solution Approach 1:
The trigger net serves as an intermediary that preserves correlated waveform information by ensuring all FPGAs capture data at the same trigger event. This allows individual FPGAs to be analyzed quickly and independently while maintaining the temporal correlation information needed to debug circuit behavior across the entire system.
Data Source
AI summary
An apparatus and method for implementing synchronous triggers for waveform capture in a multiple FPGA system is described. The apparatus includes trigger net circuitry that has one or more trigger nets and an output. Furthermore, a plurality of programmable logic devices are provided with each logic device including logic circuitry that is programmable to correspond to a circuit design, a logic analyzer circuit that includes logic connections coupled to the logic circuitry to monitor operating signals of the circuit design, and a register with a data input that is coupled to the output of the trigger net circuitry and an output that is coupled to a control input of the logic analyzer circuit. The trigger net circuitry outputs a control signal that is applied to all registers such that each logic analyzer circuit is controlled to concurrently capture data waveforms.