Quartus® Prime Pro Edition User Guide: Design Recommendations

ID 683082
Date 7/08/2024
Public
Document Table of Contents

1.6.1. Tri-State Signals

Use tri-state signals only when they are attached to top-level bidirectional or output pins.

Avoid lower-level bidirectional pins. Also avoid using the Z logic value unless it is driving an output or bidirectional pin. Even though some synthesis tools implement designs with internal tri-state signals correctly in Intel FPGA devices using multiplexer logic, do not use this coding style for Intel FPGA designs.

Note: In hierarchical block-based design flows, a hierarchical boundary cannot contain any bidirectional ports, unless the lower-level bidirectional port is connected directly through the hierarchy to a top-level output pin without connecting to any other design logic. If you use boundary tri-states in a lower-level block, synthesis software must push the tri-states through the hierarchy to the top level to make use of the tri-state drivers on output pins of Intel FPGA devices. Because pushing tri-states requires optimizing through hierarchies, lower-level tri-states are restricted with block-based design methodologies.