Hands on PCI interface ...
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From: Nico on 2 Feb 2005 12:26 Interfacing via ISA bus is very easy but slow and it is getting difficult to find ISA based PCs. USB bus easy to use but its packet stucture and therefore the latency is an issue for some real-time applications. So, I want to learn how to build and work/play with PCI interfaces. Can you suggest what is the easiest and low-cost way of involving with the PCI bus to learn with hands on experiments?
From: Dave Rooney on 2 Feb 2005 12:37 Nico wrote: > Interfacing via ISA bus is very easy but slow and it is getting difficult to > find ISA based PCs. > USB bus easy to use but its packet stucture and therefore the latency is an > issue for some real-time applications. > > So, I want to learn how to build and work/play with PCI interfaces. Can you > suggest what is the easiest and low-cost way of involving with the PCI bus > to learn with hands on experiments? > > > Try PLX Technology, www.plxtech.com. They make PCI bus interface chips and they have eval boards and reference design kits for their parts. I have used their parts on several projects and been very satisfied. Dave Rooney
From: Anders F on 2 Feb 2005 12:58 "Dave Rooney" <rooney(a)adi.com> wrote in message news:ctr35j$i74$1(a)bluegill.adi.com... > > > Nico wrote: > > Interfacing via ISA bus is very easy but slow and it is getting difficult to > > find ISA based PCs. > > USB bus easy to use but its packet stucture and therefore the latency is an > > issue for some real-time applications. > > > > So, I want to learn how to build and work/play with PCI interfaces. Can you > > suggest what is the easiest and low-cost way of involving with the PCI bus > > to learn with hands on experiments? > > Try PLX Technology, www.plxtech.com. They make PCI bus interface chips > and they have eval boards and reference design kits for their parts. > I have used their parts on several projects and been very satisfied. For production (not playing around) I'd also take a look at QuickLogic. Another approach is a FPGA - and possibly som IP... /Anders
From: Jonathan Kirwan on 2 Feb 2005 14:00 On Thu, 3 Feb 2005 04:26:11 +1100, <Nico> wrote: >Interfacing via ISA bus is very easy but slow and it is getting difficult to >find ISA based PCs. This is the reason I keep ISA bus based PCs around and working. >USB bus easy to use but its packet stucture and therefore the latency is an >issue for some real-time applications. > >So, I want to learn how to build and work/play with PCI interfaces. Can you >suggest what is the easiest and low-cost way of involving with the PCI bus >to learn with hands on experiments? Well, ponying up to PCI will not be cheap. First, you need to understand the difference between reflection wave and incident wave -- PCI is reflection wave. Second, there are very tight constraints implied by the technology. Your PCI clock line must be 1.5" +/- 0.1" in length, signal lines are to be less than 2.5" (if memory serves), and you will often find weird serpentine clock lines to meet that 1.5" requirement. Third, because of the loading requirements (at 33MHz, some 10pF total; at 66Mhz, 5pF), you will be using an ASIC. No discrete logic with multiple loads on single lines, for example. Fourth, you will pay much more dearly for instruments that can monitor and display PCI bus signals. Fifth, PCI mandates plug-and-play and certain minimum register requirements and the ability to assign block addresses, if needed. You can get low cost ASICs. But the rest makes this not low-cost and there is a high threshold of knowledge required, as well. PCI was almost designed from the ground up to exclude basement developers. Jon
From: Nico Coesel on 2 Feb 2005 14:34
Jonathan Kirwan <jkirwan(a)easystreet.com> wrote: >On Thu, 3 Feb 2005 04:26:11 +1100, <Nico> wrote: > >>Interfacing via ISA bus is very easy but slow and it is getting difficult to >>find ISA based PCs. > >This is the reason I keep ISA bus based PCs around and working. > >>USB bus easy to use but its packet stucture and therefore the latency is an >>issue for some real-time applications. >> >>So, I want to learn how to build and work/play with PCI interfaces. Can you >>suggest what is the easiest and low-cost way of involving with the PCI bus >>to learn with hands on experiments? > >Well, ponying up to PCI will not be cheap. First, you need to understand the >difference between reflection wave and incident wave -- PCI is reflection wave. >Second, there are very tight constraints implied by the technology. Your PCI >clock line must be 1.5" +/- 0.1" in length, signal lines are to be less than >2.5" (if memory serves), and you will often find weird serpentine clock lines to Most modern PCB design packages will tell you the length of a trace. No real problem here. >meet that 1.5" requirement. Third, because of the loading requirements (at >33MHz, some 10pF total; at 66Mhz, 5pF), you will be using an ASIC. No discrete ASIC? FPGA will do just fine, but the chips made by PLX are often found as a universal piece of glue. >logic with multiple loads on single lines, for example. Fourth, you will pay >much more dearly for instruments that can monitor and display PCI bus signals. ??? The 96 channel / 100MHz logic analyzer I picked up on Ebay for US$ 66 works very nice to monitor PCI signals. >Fifth, PCI mandates plug-and-play and certain minimum register requirements and >the ability to assign block addresses, if needed. > >You can get low cost ASICs. But the rest makes this not low-cost and there is a >high threshold of knowledge required, as well. PCI was almost designed from the >ground up to exclude basement developers. Creating a PCI implementation is difficult, but there are numerous ways to get a PCI core or bridge (like the PLX chips). No need to bother with tedious timing. The PCI specification can be downloaded from several sites. It just comes down to a proper PCB layout on the PCI side. The fastest way to get started with PCI is using a PLX chip. -- Reply to nico(a)nctdevpuntnl (punt=.) Bedrijven en winkels vindt U op www.adresboekje.nl |