/cdbus_ip

CDBUS Protocol and the IP Core for FPGA users

Primary LanguageVerilog

CDBUS IP Core

(This is an 8-bit version, please switch to the corresponding branch for the 32-bit version.)

  1. CDBUS Protocol
  2. Block Diagram
  3. Registers
  4. Interface
  5. Examples
  6. Simulation
  7. Ready To Use Devices
  8. License

CDBUS Protocol

CDBUS is a protocol for Asynchronous Serial Communication, it has a 3-byte header: [src_addr, dst_addr, data_len], then user data, and finally 2 bytes of CRC. (Same as MODBUS CRC.)

It's suitable for one-to-one communication, e.g. UART or RS-232. In this case, the address for each side are usually carefully selected and fixed, e.g: [0x55, 0xaa, data_len, ...], and the backward is: [0xaa, 0x55, data_len, ...]. (data_len ≤ 255.)

The CDBUS protocol is more valuable for bus communication, e.g. RS-485, M-LVDS or Single Line UART. In this case, it supports:

Arbitration Mode (CDBUS-A)

  • It introduces an arbitration mechanism that automatically avoids conflicts like the CAN bus.
  • Support dual baud rate, provide high speed communication, the baud rate in the data phase is up to: sys_freq ÷ 3. (e.g. 50 Mbps for 150 MHz sys_freq.)
  • Supports unicast, multicast and broadcast.
  • The maximum user data size is 253 bytes.
  • Hardware packing, unpacking, verification and filtering, save your time and CPU usage.
  • Backward compatible with traditional RS-485 hardware (The arbitration function still works).

The protocol timing example, include only one user data byte:
(You can set the length of time to enter idle and wait to send.)

protocol

Tips:

  • When a high-priority node needs to send unimportant data, you can dynamically increase the send wait time (TX_PERMIT_LEN).

Arbitration example:

arbitration

Break Sync Mode (CDBUS-BS)

In CDBUS-A mode, if the low-speed part takes a lot of time, it will be a communication efficiency bottleneck.

In this case, single-rate peer-to-peer bus communication can be implemented by CDBUS-BS mode:

  • The TX_PERMIT_LEN parameter is configured differently for different nodes, and the difference needs to be large enough to avoid conflicts.
  • If any node has pending tx frame before TX-permit point, then start send at the TX-permit point.
  • Or wait until the idle time exceeds MAX_IDLE_LEN, then send a break character to bring the bus out of idle state.

arbitration

The CDBUS-BS mode is suitable for high-speed applications with few nodes, and it is also suitable for software implementation.

Block Diagram

block_diagram

Operation

operation

Registers

Register Name Addr Access Default Description Remarks
VERSION 0x00 RD 0x0d Hardware version
SETTING 0x02 RD/WR 0x10 Configs
IDLE_WAIT_LEN 0x04 RD/WR 0x0a Waiting time to enter idle Bit 7~0
TX_PERMIT_LEN_L 0x05 RD/WR 0x14 Waiting time to allows sending Bit 7~0
TX_PERMIT_LEN_H 0x06 RD/WR 0x00 Bit 9~8
MAX_IDLE_LEN_L 0x07 RD/WR 0xc8 Max idle waiting time in BS mode Bit 7~0
MAX_IDLE_LEN_H 0x08 RD/WR 0x00 Bit 9~8
TX_PRE_LEN 0x09 RD/WR 0x01 How long to active TX_EN before TX Bit 1~0, not used in arbitration mode
FILTER 0x0b RD/WR 0xff Local address
DIV_LS_L 0x0c RD/WR 0x5a Low-speed rate setting Bit 7~0
DIV_LS_H 0x0d RD/WR 0x01 Bit 15~8
DIV_HS_L 0x0e RD/WR 0x5a High-speed rate setting If not use dual rate, set the same value as DIV_LS
DIV_HS_H 0x0f RD/WR 0x01
INT_FLAG 0x10 RD n/a Status
INT_MASK 0x11 RD/WR 0x00 Interrupt mask
RX 0x14 RD n/a Read RX page
TX 0x15 WR n/a Write TX page
RX_CTRL 0x16 WR n/a RX control
TX_CTRL 0x17 WR n/a TX control
RX_ADDR 0x18 RD/WR 0x00 RX page read pointer Rarely used
RX_PAGE_FLAG 0x19 RD n/a RX page flag Mainly used for debugging
FILTER1 0x1a RD/WR 0xff Multicast filter1
FILTER2 0x1b RD/WR 0xff Multicast filter2

SETTING:

FIELD DESCRIPTION
[0] Enable push-pull output for tx and tx_en pin
[1] Invert tx output
[2] CRC maintained by user
[3] Save broken frame
[4] Enable arbitration
[5] Break Sync mode
[6] Full duplex mode
[4] [5] [6] DESCRIPTION
1 0 0 CDBUS-A mode (default)
0 1 0 CDBUS-BS mode
0 0 1 Full-duplex mode
0 0 0 Traditional half-duplex mode

FILTERS:

Match from top to bottom:

SRC_ADDR DST_ADDR FILTER FILTERn Receive or drop Remarks
not care not care 255 not care Receive Promiscuous mode
= FILTER not care != 255 not care Drop Avoid loopback
!= FILTER 255 not care not care Receive Broadcast
!= FILTER != 255 not care any = DST_ADDR Receive Multicast
!= FILTER != 255 = DST_ADDR not care Receive Unicast
not care != 255 != DST_ADDR all != DST_ADDR Drop

It is recommended to reserve the address from 0xe0 to 0xfe as the multicast address.

The default value 0xff of FILTERn means not enabled.

DIV_xx_x:

Baud rate divider value: DIV_xx[15:0] = sys_freq ÷ baud_rate − 1

The minimum value is 2.

INT_FLAG:

FIELD DESCRIPTION
[0] 1: Bus in IDLE mode
[1] 1: RX page ready for read
[2] 1: Break character received
[3] 1: RX lost: no empty page for RX
[4] 1: RX error: frame broken
[5] 1: TX page released by hardware
[6] 1: TX collision detected
[7] 1: TX error: tx is 0, but rx is 1

INT_MASK:

Output of irq = ((INT_FLAG & INT_MASK) != 0).

RX_CTRL:

FIELD DESCRIPTION
[0] Reset RX page read pointer
[1] Switch RX page
[2] Clear RX lost flag
[3] Clear RX error flag
[4] Reset RX block
[5] Clear RX break flag

TX_CTRL:

FIELD DESCRIPTION
[0] Reset TX page write pointer
[1] Switch TX page
[2] Clear TX collision flag
[3] Clear TX error flag
[4] Abort TX
[5] Send break character

RX_PAGE_FLAG:

Value zero indicate the frame in current RX page is correct;
Non-zero indicate the pointer of last received byte of the disturbed frame, include CRC.

Interface

    parameter DIV_LS = 346,         // default: 115200 bps for 40MHz clk
    parameter DIV_HS = 346


    input           clk,            // core clock
    input           reset_n,        // asynch active low reset
    input           chip_select,    // reduce ram_rx power consumption
    output          irq,            // interrupt output

    // avalon-mm slave interface, read and write without latency
    // support burst read and write (normally for REG_TX and REG_RX)
    input   [4:0]   csr_address,
    input           csr_read,
    output  [7:0]   csr_readdata,
    input           csr_write,
    input   [7:0]   csr_writedata,

    // connect to external PHY chip, e.g. MAX3485
    input           rx,
    output          tx,
    output          tx_en

Examples

    # Configuration
    
    write(REG_SETTING, [0x11])                  # Enable push-pull output
    
    
    # TX
    
    write(REG_TX, [0x0c, 0x0d, 0x01, 0xcd])     # Write frame without CRC
    while (read(REG_INT_FLAG) & 0x20) == 0:     # Make sure we can successfully switch to the next page
        pass
    write(REG_TX_CTRL, [0x03])                  # Trigger send by switching TX page
    
    
    # RX
    
    while (read(REG_INT_FLAG) & 0x02) == 0:     # Wait for RX page ready
        pass
    header = read(REG_RX, len=3)
    data = read(REG_RX, len=header[2])
    write(REG_RX_CTRL, [0x03])                  # Finish read by switching RX page

Test

Install iverilog (>= v10) and cocotb, goto tests/ folder, run ./test_all.sh or ./test_all.sh test_xxx.py. (You can checkout the waveform cdbus.vcd by GTKWave.)

Ready To Use Devices

The CDCTL controller family uses the CDBUS IP Core, which provide SPI, I2C and PCIe peripheral interfaces.
E.g. The tiny CDCTL-Bx module support SPI and I2C interfaces:
(This module is completely open source, including the source code and gerber files, in the example/ directory.)
cdctl_bx

More relevant projects that may interest you:

License

This Source Code Form is subject to the terms of the Mozilla
Public License, v. 2.0. If a copy of the MPL was not distributed
with this file, You can obtain one at https://mozilla.org/MPL/2.0/.
Notice: The scope granted to MPL excludes the ASIC industry.
The CDBUS protocol is royalty-free for everyone except chip manufacturers.

Copyright (c) 2017 DUKELEC, All rights reserved.