Removing ~2 ns from the fabric MISO path (EXI_J4 merge + the CS mux) did NOT
move the hardware result: the GC still returned a byte-identical 0B 80 at
27 MHz while reading correctly at 16 MHz and below. Identical rather than
intermittent means the path is well outside the window, not marginally inside
it, so trimming fabric delay further was not going to get there.
MISO is source-synchronous -- driven on the falling edge, sampled by the GC on
the next rising edge -- so the whole path must fit a HALF period, 18.5 ns at
27 MHz, minus global-buffer insertion, pad, connector and the GC's setup.
Driving from fabric spent 8.4-11.5 ns of that on routing alone.
An SB_IO output register sits in the IO tile: clock-to-pad is the IO flop's
own delay with no fabric routing. nextpnr confirms the path left the fabric
entirely -- miso_io.D_OUT_0 packs at die (9,0), the pad itself, SB_IO count is
unchanged at 24, and no negedge -> <async> path is reported any more. What
replaces it is a setup path INTO the IOB register (10.07 ns against a
half-period), which is internal and has nothing stacked on top of it.
PIN_TYPE was decoded from yosys's own SB_IO model rather than from memory,
because wrong bits there produce a silently dead or mistimed output:
[5:4]=10 tri-state, combinational OUTPUT_ENABLE
[3]=0,[2]=1 dout = dout_q_0, single-rate REGISTERED output
[1:0]=01 simple input (unused)
NEG_TRIGGER=1 moves the IO registers to the FALLING edge.
To keep simulation and silicon agreeing about MISO, the slave exposes
miso_next -- the value the shift register WILL hold after the falling edge --
and spi_mode3_slave T6 proves it predicts spi_miso bit for bit. Without that
the IOB register would be an untested sim/hardware divergence, which is the
exact class of bug that has cost this design the most time.
BEHAVIOUR CHANGE: MISO is now TRI-STATED when CS is high, held high by the
pad's PULLUP, instead of actively driven high. EXI MISO is a SHARED bus --
SP1 is on channel 0 alongside memory-card slot A -- so driving it while
deselected was wrong and could fight a card.
--seeds 8: clk 28.5-30.7 MHz, EXI 41.6-49.7 MHz, 8/8 PASS. The EXI numbers
fall (62 -> 49) because the posedge->negedge setup path into the IOB register
is now charged to that domain at a half-period constraint; 41.6 MHz worst case
is still 1.5x the 27 MHz target. Best seed 3 (clk 30.68, EXI 49.14), flashed.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Roflin
2f081a3e69