Stratix II GX: PELE for PC

1. Introduction:
This document contains the description of how to run the PELE (Pre-emphasis & Equalization Link Estimator)
program on the PC. The user can monitor the outputs at the near-end, the far-end, and at the output of the
equalizer in his/her application.
In the document, you are referred as the user.

2. Setup:
From the package you will find two files: MCRInstaller.exe and PELE.zip.
1.

Install the MCR program:

Your PC system should have at least 300MB of disk space for installation.
Copy the MCRInstaller.exe program into any directory of your PC then install it by following step-by-step as its
instruction guides you through.

2.

Setup the directory:

Have a copy of PELE.zip file in your working directory. Unzip it then you will see the 4 other files:
i. Channel1.s4p: is a sample 4-port backplane.
ii. PELE.ctf: is the library that contains all the files to run the PELE program
iii. PELE.exe: is the top level file that calls all files & library for execution.
iv. User_input.txt: is the the user input file that can be set before the execution.

3. User Input:

User_input.txt: Below is the User_input.txt file in blue font.

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
% User-defined parameters
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
% Full name of 2-port or 4-port S-parameter file
infile = 'channel1.s4p';
% Name of the backplane (No white-space inside quotes)
bp_name = 'Your back-plane name';
% S-Parameter measuring network format:
% 0 - two-port; 1 - four-port
network = 1;
% For four-port network, select port number assignment:
% 1 - Input port # 1/3 & Output port # 2/4;
% 0 - Input port # 1/2 & Output port # 3/4
port = 1;
% Optimization method
% optway | Tx
| Rx
% ---------------------------%
1 | Manual | Auto
%
2 | Auto
| Auto
%
3 | Auto
| Mannual
%
4 | Manual | Mannual
optway = 2;
% For optway = 1 or 4 (Tx manual),
% Need to set weights for pre_tap, post_tap1 and post_tap2

pre_tap
= 0;
post_tap1 = -9;
post_tap2 = 0;
% Input Vod value (200 to 1400 step 200, typical 800) in mVpp
Vodt = 1000;
% Input data baud rate in unit of Gbps
speed = 6.5;

Below is the explanation of the User_input.txt in more detail:

o Backplane:
The backplane file name: that you use in your simulation. In this example, it is channel1.s4p
which is the backplane file name in your directory.
infile = 'channel1.s4p';

(the backplane S-paramter file name)

The backplane name is the name you want to print out on the graph.

The network type of the backplane: either 2-ports or 4-ports.

The port order: If it is 4-port network, then you need to specify the port assignment order, either
input = port 1 /port 2 and output = port 3 / port 4 or input = port 1 / port 3 and output = port 2 /
port 4. The reason to ask for the port order is: when extracting the backplane S-parameters,
people sometimes swap port 2 and port 3. Refer to the s-parameter section in the power point
presentation

bp_name = 'Your back-plane name';

network = 1;

port = 1;

(choose 4 ports)

(port order is: Input port # 1/3 & Output port # 2/4;)

Optimization Method for TX and RX:

You can either set the TX or RX in manual or auto mode. There are 4 combinations of TX/RX
settings (1. TX = manual, RX = Auto ; 2. TX= auto, RX = auto; 3. TX = auto, RX = manual;
4. TX = manual, RX = manual) . For auto mode, the program will automatically pick the
settings for you at the end of the simulation.
optway = 2;

(both TX and RX are set to Auto mode)

For the TX manual mode (optway=1 or 4), you have to set the value of the pre_tap, post_tap1,
and post_tap2 according to table 1. In this example, the TX and RX are set to auto, so the below
pre-emphasis settings wont be used.
pre_tap
= 0;
post_tap1 = -9;
post_tap2 = 0;

For the RX manual mode (optway = 3 or 4), when running PELE, the program will ask you to
pick the value of equalizer setting from 1 through 16 (according to table 2) until you satisfy with
the result.
Output voltage of the TX driver: can be specified within the range from 200mV to 1400mV

The speed of the system can also be specified here in term of Gbps (Giga Bits Per Second)

Vodt = 1000;
speed = 6.5;

Table 1: Pre-emphasis settings at different VOD level for TX manual mode.

(Note: pre_tap / 2nd post tap has eitheir +/- sign, 1st post tap has - sign only)
VOD (mv) pre_tap

200

+/- 1
+/- 2
+/- 3
+/- 4
+/- 5
NaN
NaN
NaN
NaN
NaN
NaN
NaN

1st post 2nd post VOD (mv) pre_tap

-1
-2
-3
NaN
NaN
NaN
NaN
NaN
NaN
NaN
NaN
NaN

+/- 1
+/- 2
+/- 3
+/- 4
+/- 5
NaN
NaN
NaN
NaN
NaN
NaN
NaN

400

+/- 1
+/- 2
+/- 3
+/- 4
+/- 5
+/- 6
+/- 7
NaN
NaN
NaN
NaN
NaN

1st post 2nd post

-1
-2
-3
-4
-5
-6
NaN
NaN
NaN
NaN
NaN
NaN

+/- 1
+/- 2
+/- 3
+/- 4
+/- 5
+/- 6
+/- 7
NaN
NaN
NaN
NaN
NaN

600

1000

1400

+/- 1
+/- 2
+/- 3
+/- 4
+/- 5
+/- 6
+/- 7
NaN
NaN
NaN
NaN
NaN
+/- 1
+/- 2
+/- 3
+/- 4
+/- 5
+/- 6
+/- 7
NaN
NaN
NaN
NaN
NaN
+/- 1
+/- 2
+/- 3
+/- 4
+/- 5
+/- 6
+/- 7
NaN
NaN
NaN
NaN
NaN

-1
-2
-3
-4
-5
-6
-7
-8
-9
- 10
NaN
NaN
-1
-2
-3
-4
-5
-6
-7
-8
-9
- 10
- 11
- 12
-1
-2
-3
-4
-5
-6
-7
-8
-9
- 10
- 11
- 12

+/- 1
+/- 2
+/- 3
+/- 4
+/- 5
+/- 6
+/- 7
NaN
NaN
NaN
NaN
NaN
+/- 1
+/- 2
+/- 3
+/- 4
+/- 5
+/- 6
+/- 7
NaN
NaN
NaN
NaN
NaN
+/- 1
+/- 2
+/- 3
+/- 4
+/- 5
+/- 6
+/- 7
NaN
NaN
NaN
NaN
NaN

800

1200

+/- 1
+/- 2
+/- 3
+/- 4
+/- 5
+/- 6
+/- 7
NaN
NaN
NaN
NaN
NaN
+/- 1
+/- 2
+/- 3
+/- 4
+/- 5
+/- 6
+/- 7
NaN
NaN
NaN
NaN
NaN

-1
-2
-3
-4
-5
-6
-7
-8
-9
- 10
- 11
- 12
-1
-2
-3
-4
-5
-6
-7
-8
-9
- 10
- 11
- 12

+/- 1
+/- 2
+/- 3
+/- 4
+/- 5
+/- 6
+/- 7
NaN
NaN
NaN
NaN
NaN
+/- 1
+/- 2
+/- 3
+/- 4
+/- 5
+/- 6
+/- 7
NaN
NaN
NaN
NaN
NaN

(Note: pre_tap / 2nd post tap either has +/- sign, 1st post tap only has - sign; NaN: not supported)
Table2: Equalizer settings in RX manual mode
Gain level
Equalizer Gain
Bypass (0dB)
Bypass
Low 0
Low 1
Low Gain
Low 2
(3-7dB)
Low 3
Low 4
Med 0
Med 1
Med Gain
Med 2
(8-12dB)
Med 3
Med 4

High Gain
(12-16dB)

High 0
High 1
High 2
High 3
High 4

4. Running PELE Program:

a. To run the PELE, just double click on the file PELE.exe then follow the instruction.
b. If it doesnt work then, you have to try the following thing. Bring up the DOS window by:
1.
2.

Click on Start --> Run,

Type cmd in the window then hit OK.

Figure 1: Command line of the window.

then you will have the below DOS window. In your machine, the interface will be different from mine as
your user name is different.

Figure 2: The first DOS window after invoking the cmd command.
3.

Use cd command to change the directory to your working directory. In this example, my working
directory is E:\PELE . So at first, I go to E driver by typing E: then hit enter then I have the following
window.

Figure 3: Change the directory to E driver in DOS by typing E: follow by Enter

Next, I want to go PELE directory, so I type cd PELE and hit enter then I would have the following
window.

Figure 4: Change the directory to working directory (PELE).

To run the PELE program, type PELE.exe as shown below, then wait for the result.

Figure 5: Execute the PELE program in DOS by typing PELE.exe follow by an enter.
When the program is finished, you will have the following window as shown in Figure 6.

Figure 6: The final result after executing the command PELE.exe.

Since the optimization method is chosen as TX = auto, RX = auto, so the program will automatically pick the
settings for TX pre-emphasis and RX equalizer as shown in figure 6. For the equalizer, the program picks the
setting #1 that give the horizontal eye opening to 0.8022UI, the vertical eye opening is 0.167Vpp, and the area eye
opening is 0.134 (0.8022*0.167). For the TX driver, it pick the normalized pre-emphasis as: Pre-tap = -0.05,
main-tap =1, post-tap1=-0.56, and post-tap2=0.

Below are the example plots after the PELE program is finished.

Firgure 7: Frequency Response of the backplane:

Figure 8: Eye diagram at the Near-end

Figure 9: Eye diagram at the Far-end of the backplane without Pre-emphasis

Figure 10: Eye diagram at the Far-end of the backplane with Pre-emphasis.

Figure 11: Frequency Response of the Equalizer setting #1.

Figure 12: Eye diagram at the RX Equalizer output

5. Re-running PELE program:

You can change to different mode setting by changing User_input.txt file before executing the PELE.exe
command again.
Before re-running the PELE program, you have to close all the plots first, but dont kill the DOS window. To quickly
close all the plots, you can use ALT-Ctrl-Delete to list all applications out. Next, select Figure 1 and click on
End Task to end the process. ( If this process is not killed yet, then another window may pop-up, you then click on
End Now to end the process. )

Figure 13: Window Task Manager

After all the plots are closed, you can re-run the program with another setting.