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Altera_Forum's avatar
Altera_Forum
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15 years ago

6 Gbps PIPE on Arria II GX?

I'm considering buying the Arria II GX Development Board to develop a solution that will interact directly with the PIPE interface. The Altera web site however says that PCI Express Gen 2 is not supported although 6 Gbps is supported.

Can anyone confirm that it is merely the built-in hard IP block that does not support Gen2 PCIe and that i will be able to receive and send data from/to a 6 Gbps PCIe x8 link by using the PIPE interface directly?

5 Replies

  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    15 years ago

    To clarify: Since the receiver PMA and PCS blocks apparently works for SATA III (6 gbps) in the I3 version of Arria II GX, why can't I use the PMA/PCS/PIPE to receive PCI Express Gen 2 (5 Gbps) data?

    Note that i'm only interested in receiving. The transmitter is not used in my application.

    Also note that i only use the PIPE interface so the hard PCIe IP block is not used.

    I would need to receive two bonded x8 PIPE links (16 transceivers in total).
  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    15 years ago

    the ALTGX 10.0 megafunction won't allow you to create a 5 Gbps PIPE interface (gen1 only). in basic mode you can get it up to 5000 Mbps, so the tool is ready to allow the -3 devices to go over 3.25 Gbps or whatever the old maximum speed was

    i'm not too familiar with the GX, maybe you can use a basic mode transceiver and build your own PIPE, or create a 2.5 Gbps PIPE and see if you can replace the transceiver instantiation

    either way it doesn't look straight forward in the current release
  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    15 years ago

    Thanks. It looks like i have to wait for the Arria II GZ for 5 Gbps PIPE functionality. When might the Arria II GZ be available for purchase?

  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    15 years ago

    Wonderful. This will be a way forward for future/faster products. Thanks.