Intel® Cyclone® 10 LP FPGA – AN 294: Crosspoint Switch Matrices Custom Example

Intel® Cyclone® 10 LP FPGA – AN 294: Crosspoint Switch Matrices Custom Example

714533
6/21/2017

Introduction

With a high level of flexibility, performance, and programmability, you can use crosspoint switches in applications such as digital cross switching, telecommunications, and video broadcasting.

Design Details

Device Family

Intel® Cyclone® 10 LP FPGA

Quartus Edition

Intel® Quartus® Prime Standard Edition

Quartus Version

17.0

IP Cores (0)

Detailed Description

Although there are off-the-shelf devices available to implement switches, Intel Cyclone 10 LP devices offer more flexibility to customize switches, meeting specific design goals with in-system programmability (ISP)

There are two reference designs described in this application note:
*16 *16 crosspoint switch
*Customized crosspoint switch

A 16 *16 crosspoint switch is a non-blocking crosspoint switch, allowing you to independently connect each output to any input and any input to be connected to any output. The customized crosspoint switch implements a 4-port bidirectional crosspoint switch. You can connect each bidirectional port to any other port. For example, if the port acts as an output, you can connect it to any one of the other ports that acts as an input. With this customized crosspoint switch, Intel Cyclone 10 LP devices offer more flexibility to meet specific goals rather than only implementing a standard nonblocking crosspoint switch.



Prepare the design template in the Quartus Prime software GUI (version 14.1 and later)


Note: After downloading the design example, you must prepare the design template. The file you downloaded is of the form of a <project>.par file which contains a compressed version of your design files (similar to a .qar file) and metadata describing the project. The combination of this information is what constitutes a <project>.par file. In releases 16.0 or newer, you can simply double click on the <project>.par file and Quartus will launch that project.


The second means to bring up the project template is through the New Project Wizard (File -> New Project Wizard). After entering the project name and folder on the first panel, the second panel will ask you to specify an empty project or project template. Select project template. You will see a list of Design Templates projects that you have loaded prior as well as various "Baseline Pinout Designs" that contain the pinout and settings for a variety of development kits. If you don't see your design template in the list, click on the link that states install the Design Templates circled below:



Browse to the <project>.par file you downloaded, click next, followed by Finish, and your design template will be installed and displayed in the Project Navigator pane in Quartus.


Note: When a design is stored in the Design Store as a design template, it has been previously regression tested against the stated version of Quartus software. The regression ensures the design template passes analysis/synthesis/fitting/assembly steps in the Quartus design flow.



Prepare the design template in the Quartus Prime software command-line


At the command-line, type the following command:

quartus_sh --platform_install -package <project directory>/<project>.par


Once the process completes, then type:

quartus_sh --platform -name <project>



Note:

* ACDS Version: 17.0.0 Standard


Design Details

Device Family

Intel® Cyclone® 10 LP FPGA

Quartus Edition

Intel® Quartus® Prime Standard Edition

Quartus Version

17.0