In most cases each RF-ADC or RF-DAC tile has its own clock input. There is no need to instantiate a clock input buffer in your design because the current-mode logic (CML) clock input buffer is implemented in the tile architecture. The clock input buffer can be used as a sampling clock for the tile or as a reference for the tile PLL. The CML clock input has an on-die differential termination of 100Ω.
The clock input buffer has a detection circuit for measuring activity at the external clock inputs. When a clock is present, the input buffer is activated. When no clock is present, the outputs of the clock buffer are forced into a steady state. If the clock is lost, the core shuts the tile down but will restart the tile without user intervention when the clock returns. The Reset Count Register increments each time the core shuts the tile down.
When the PLL is not used, the clock buffer output is passed through a multiplexer into the RF-ADC or RF-DAC tile clock network. When the PLL is used, the output of the clock buffer is driven to the PLL to serve as the reference clock.
In each AMD Zynq™ UltraScale+™ RFSoC, there is a dedicated input SYSREF pin pair per package. The SYSREF clocks the multi-tile and multi-device synchronization. For multi-tile designs, the SYSREF connects into a master tile and the signal must be distributed from inside that tile to all other tiles used in the design.
The presence of a clock at the input pins can be checked by using the RFdc software API. If no clock is detected the RF-ADC and RF-DAC blocks affected do not start up and stay in the Clock Detection state.