5.22.2 Using Bus Interfaces in SmartDesign

Adding bus interfaces to your design enables SmartDesign to do the following:

• Auto connect compatible interfaces
• Enforce DRC rules between instances in your design
• Search for compatible components in the project

The Catalog in the Project Manager contains a list of Microchip-specific and industry standard bus definitions, such as AMBA.

You can add bus interfaces to your design by dragging the bus definitions from the Bus Definitions tab in the Catalog onto your instances inside SmartDesign.

Some Microchip cores have bus interfaces that are instantiated during generation.

Certain bus definitions cannot be instantiated by a user. Typically these are the bus definitions that define a hardwired connection and are specifically tied to a core/macro. They are still available in the catalog for you to view their properties, but you will not be able to add them onto your own instances or components. These bus definitions are grayed out in the Catalog.

A hardwired connection is a required silicon interconnect that must be present and specifically tied to a core/macro. For example, when using the Real Time Counter in a Fusion design you must also connect it to a Crystal Oscillator core.

Maximum masters allowed - Indicates how many masters are allowed on the bus.

Maximum slaves allowed - Indicates how many slaves are allowed on the bus.

Default value - indicates the value that the input signal will be tied to if unused. See Default tie-offs with bus interfaces.

Required connection - Indicates if this bus interface must be connected for a legal design.

Hover your mouse over a bus definition in the Project Manager Bus Definition Catalog to view the masters/slave/default/required connection information.