PCI Express design kit based on Xilinx Virtex-II Pro PCI Express Solution now available
SEPTEMBER 10--NitAl Consulting Service (Portland, OR; www.nital.com) recently announced a new PCI Express Design Kit for developing systems using the Xilinx PCI Express solution. Based on the Xilinx Virtex-II Pro Platform FPGA, the kit enables architects of high-performance compute, storage, and communication systems to immediately deploy the latest PCI Express technology in their designs.
"PCI Express is well on its way to being the next generation interconnect for desktop as well as the embedded market. Today Xilinx has thousands of licensed PCI designers poised to start designing with PCI Express. As a member of the Xilinx XPERTS Program, NitAl has a wealth of knowledge and experience with PCI Express," said Mark Aaldering, vice president of IP and Embedded Processing Divisions at Xilinx (www.xilinx.com/).
"FPGA designers now have a design kit specifically designed for using Xilinx PCI Express LogiCORE in our platform FPGAs." This kit is immediately available and features a hardware-evaluation board based on the state-of-the-art Virtex-II Pro (2VP40) device and a host of functions including: up to eight 3.125 Gbit/s Xilinx RocketIO multigigabit serial transceivers and 396 LVDS pairs. The board is designed to be used in combination with the Xilinx LogiCORE PCI Express x1 and x4 Endpoint. This design kit is based upon a standard PCI Express form factor allowing the end user to develop and validate his PCI Express endpoint/switch application with other industry-standard PCI Express hardware such as motherboards and adapters as well as NitAl's PCI Express X4 Host emulator-Device Exerciser/Analyzer, PCIeBuilder-H254.
The kit has been developed jointly by NitAl and Xilinx. The user can program the PCI Express application RTL into a Xilinx Virtex-II Pro device and immediately begin system validation efforts. The PCIeBuilder-X254 is based on the PCIExBuilder-D251. PCIExBuilder-D251 was used to verify interoperability and the Xilinx PCI Express Endpoint core with industry leading PCI Express Host cards, at the PCI-SIG plugfest.
