Transceiver Clock Sharing Between Chips/Boards

[bfung]

Hi all,

I am looking to use transceivers with quads that exist on multiple chips/boards but that also require a shared clock between them all.  What is the best way to do this? Is this possible with two development boards (ex. multiple vcu118s connected somehow to share transceivers clocks)?

[borisq]

hi @bfung 

VCU118 or other Xilinx eval boards commonly have a SMA reference clock input.

You can use a clock generator with two output ports and connected them to two VCU118s with the SMA cables.

The pin on VCU118 is below.

MGTREFCLK0 - MGT226_CLK0_P/N (SMA J31 P, J30 N)

A single clock ouput splitted into two is not recommanded. i.e., we need point to point connection for ref clocks.

Thanks,

Boris