Prototyping system hits PCI and PCI-X buses

A new daughterboard provides PCI/PCI-X connectivity to the Hardi Electronics HAPS prototyping system.

A new daughterboard provides PCI/PCI-X connectivity to the Hardi Electronics HAPS prototyping system.

The new board, called PCIX, will be shown for the first time at the Electronica USA Conference in San Francisco, from 29th March to 1st April 2004 (Booth 534).

HAPS is a modular ASIC prototyping system providing real-time speed, real-time debugging and full ASIC functionality for ASIC prototyping designers.

The PCIX board serves a dual purpose, both as a platform for verifying PCI-X cores and as a direct connection between a HAPS system and a PCI/PCI-X bus.

Furthermore, for greater flexibility, designers have the option of either placing the PCIX board in a PCI (or PCI-X) slot in a computer or stacking it directly on a HAPS motherboard.

If placed in a computer, high-speed cables are available for the connection to an external HAPS motherboard.

An alternative is to stack HAPS daughterboards, such as FPGA_2x3 and memory boards, directly on the PCIX board, with everything placed inside a PC.

The new PCIX board is compatible with both 32 and 64bit PCI-X buses in frequencies up to 133MHz.

The board can also be used in a standard PCI environment.

"Many designs are difficult to partition between a single-FPGA PCI board and the rest of the prototype system", stated Jonas Nilsson, Technical Manager at Hardi Electronics.

"The required bandwidth between the two halves is just too high.

Our modular system allows the massive amount of I/O available on our standard FPGA_2x3 board to be used for that communication.

And if that's not enough, stacking the PCIX board directly on a large HAPS motherboard will remove the bottleneck completely".

An important advantage using the PCIX board for verifying PCI/PCI-X cores is that the PCI/PCI-X bus is not disturbed even if the design under test is not behaving properly.

Another unique feature is that the PCI/PCI-X core can run at a lower speed than the actual speed of the PCI/PCI-X bus.

The speed difference is totally transparent to the designer, eliminating time-consuming redesigns since the designer no longer has to be concerned with synchronising the various speeds of the different buses.

The PCIX board can also be used to set up a fast communication link between a computer and the ASIC prototype.

The PCIX board provides a bridge between the PCI/PCI-X bus and a simpler local bus.

The HAPS system then uses the local bus to pass test vectors and debug information to and from the PCI host, without the need for an FPGA based PCI/PCI-X core.

A JTAG controller on the PCIX board makes it possible to download programming data and configure a HAPS system via the PCI/PCI-X bus.

Windows and Linux drivers, as well as software for communication with Verilog and VHDL simulators via PLI and VHPI, are provided free of charge by Hardi Electronics.

The PCIX board is available today.

US pricing starts at $2990.

European pricing is Eur 2495.

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