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On the last point, I suspected it might not be that simple (i.e., that you can't just connect two sockets together)
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Right, that is what I wanted you to appreciate.
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and if that's what the card is for I will look closer.
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If you look at the Arria V SoC schematic, I'm pretty sure you'll fine the PCIe clock, resetN, etc signals are OUTPUTs, i.e., the PCIe connector assumes you will connect to a peripheral board.
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But I'm assuming then, that the card is transparent from a SW perspective, otherwise drivers (or lack thereof) becomes an issue again.
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Nothing is transparent :)
If you were to use the Arria V SoC kit to test a PCIe board, then the software running on the Arria V kit is responsible for initializing the PCIe interface, eg., U-Boot or Linux on the ARM core is responsible for enumerating the PCIe bus. This is analogous to your PC BIOS enumerating the Stratix IV PCIe board when plugged into your desktop machine. If the
RocketBoards.org U-Boot+Linux combo implements the PCIe interface, then yes, in that respect, the "software is transparent" to your user-space application code, since someone else has already written the low-level hardware initialization code.
Cheers,
Dave
Honored Contributor
