Rapid development for PCI bus bridging

Edited by the Electronicstalk editorial team Sep 20, 2004

A new development kit aims to help design engineers working in the fields of telecommunications, storage, networking and other PC-based embedded applications.

A new development kit aims to help design engineers working in the fields of telecommunications, storage, networking and other PC-based embedded applications.

The PCI 6254 Rapid Development Kit (RDK) is a flexible development platform for systems that require bridging between PCI buses.

It is based around the PCI 6254, a fully featured bridge chip that enables PCI to PCI bridging and supports both bus speed and bandwidth switching in addition to fully nontransparent options for multiple-host systems.

The 64bit PCI 6254 supports 33 to 66MHz asynchronous operation, allowing frequency conversions from slower to faster PCI buses and vice versa.

5V signal input tolerance and 5 to 3.3V signal conversion capability provide further support for interfacing with legacy systems.

For use in high-availability systems, the PCI 6254 is hot-swappable and the inclusion of a universal interface means that CompactPCI system and peripheral slot links can be effected.

In addition to the development board itself, the kit also includes software on CD and full documentation.

The PCI 6254 RDK is available in the UK exclusively through Ultimate Renaissance, the sole distributor for the full PLX Technology product range.