Hi All,

I'm need to interface a Xilinx Virtex to a PCI Bus. The Xilinx PCI IP
core is too costly for the volumes I will be building, so I'm looking
at PCI controller chips.

From experience can anybody recommend a vendor, such as Quicklogic,
AMCC, Tundra, etc.

Thanks,

Andy.

AndyAtHome wrote:
> 
> Hi All,
> 
> I'm need to interface a Xilinx Virtex to a PCI Bus. The Xilinx PCI IP
> core is too costly for the volumes I will be building, so I'm looking
> at PCI controller chips.
> 
> From experience can anybody recommend a vendor, such as Quicklogic,
> AMCC, Tundra, etc.

I used a PLX chip a few years ago and had very little trouble with it. 
PCI was not so easy to learn, but otherwise it was no big issue.  I
would recommend that you use a PCI bus analyzer to help you debug your
low level protocol.  Or you might not need it if you are doing a simple
memory mapped interface.  We were doing DMA and needed all the help we
could get since we didn't have much info on the disk controller bus
master.  

-- 

Rick "rickman" Collins

r...@XYarius.com
Ignore the reply address. To email me use the above address with the XY
removed.

Arius - A Signal Processing Solutions Company
Specializing in DSP and FPGA design      URL http://www.arius.com
4 King Ave                               301-682-7772 Voice
Frederick, MD 21701-3110                 301-682-7666 FAX

On Sun, 11 Jul 2004 21:09:20 -0400, rickman
<s...@yahoo.com>
wrote:

>AndyAtHome wrote:
>> 
>> Hi All,
>> 
>> I'm need to interface a Xilinx Virtex to a PCI Bus. The Xilinx PCI IP
>> core is too costly for the volumes I will be building, so I'm looking
>> at PCI controller chips.
>> 
>> From experience can anybody recommend a vendor, such as Quicklogic,
>> AMCC, Tundra, etc.
>
>I used a PLX chip a few years ago and had very little trouble with it. 
>PCI was not so easy to learn, but otherwise it was no big issue.  I
>would recommend that you use a PCI bus analyzer to help you debug your
>low level protocol.  Or you might not need it if you are doing a simple
>memory mapped interface.  We were doing DMA and needed all the help we
>could get since we didn't have much info on the disk controller bus
>master.  

I've also worked on boards with PLX chips on them.  One (family of
boards) in particular had a PLX PCI 9030 to bridge between the PCI and
a simple synchronous local bus that went to a number of FPGAs.

It didn't have amazing performance, but it was simple and worked.

Regards,
Allan.

AndyAtHome <f...@yahoo.com> wrote:
: Hi All,

: I'm need to interface a Xilinx Virtex to a PCI Bus. The Xilinx PCI IP
: core is too costly for the volumes I will be building, so I'm looking
: at PCI controller chips.

: From experience can anybody recommend a vendor, such as Quicklogic,
: AMCC, Tundra, etc.

Look at the Opencore PCI Core
-- 
Uwe Bonnes                b...@elektron.ikp.physik.tu-darmstadt.de

Institut fuer Kernphysik  Schlossgartenstrasse 9  64289 Darmstadt
--------- Tel. 06151 162516 -------- Fax. 06151 164321 ----------

AndyAtHome wrote:
> Hi All,
> 
> I'm need to interface a Xilinx Virtex to a PCI Bus. The Xilinx PCI IP
> core is too costly for the volumes I will be building, so I'm looking
> at PCI controller chips.
> 
> From experience can anybody recommend a vendor, such as Quicklogic,
> AMCC, Tundra, etc.
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Andy.

If Target PCI core is enough for your product, we have a complet package 
coming with :
  - ezPCI PCI Core (target only) VHDL or pre-synthesized code
  - linux drivers
  - w2k, xp, nt ,win98 drivers

It is very easy to use and will allow you to skip the need of PCI 
interface chip ;-)

Our PCI package was used by 4 companies for specific products.
Works well, but it is target only for now.

Please contact me to know the prices.

Laurent Gauch
www.amontec.com

Thanks - two votes for PLX, I'll check them out.

Andy.

"Amontec Team"
<l...@amontecDELETEALLCAPS.com> wrote in message
news:4...@amontecDELETEALLCAPS.com...
>
> It is very easy to use and will allow you to skip the need of PCI
> interface chip ;-)

Personally I prefer using a separate chip because it allows me to load that
FPGA through the PCI bus making field upgrades easy. I am waiting with
putting PCI inside of a FPGA until modular design and partial
reconfiguration will allow me to achieve the same level of flexibility.

/Mikhail

>Personally I prefer using a separate chip
because it allows me to load that
>FPGA through the PCI bus making field upgrades easy. I am waiting with
>putting PCI inside of a FPGA until modular design and partial
>reconfiguration will allow me to achieve the same level of flexibility.

You don't need partial reconfiguration to do a field upgrade.
Connect a couple of pins on the FPGA to the programming pins on the
serial PROM.  Use them to rewrite the bit stream, then power
cycle.

Not as convient for debugging.

It also has the problem of leaving your board in a broken
state if you drop power in the middle of the update.

-- 
The suespammers.org mail server is located in California.  So are all my
other mailboxes.  Please do not send unsolicited bulk e-mail or unsolicited
commercial e-mail to my suespammers.org address or any of my other addresses.
These are my opinions, not necessarily my employer's.  I hate spam.

AndyAtHome wrote:
> Hi All,
> 
> I'm need to interface a Xilinx Virtex to a PCI Bus. The Xilinx PCI IP
> core is too costly for the volumes I will be building, so I'm looking
> at PCI controller chips.
> 
> From experience can anybody recommend a vendor, such as Quicklogic,
> AMCC, Tundra, etc.
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Andy.
If it is just functionality you use, have a look here:
http://www.fpga4fun.com/PCI.html

/Rob

> It also has the problem of leaving your
board in a broken
> state if you drop power in the middle of the update.

Or something else goes wrong, plus the cost of the PROM is comparable to the
cost of a PCI bridge...

/Mikhail