Honored Contributor
Honored ContributorI'm some of the way through a PCIe design with a Cyclone IV. So far I've learned:
A. Start with a working design from a dev kit or eval kit. That way you start with known working hardware, FPGA design and windows driver. If you don't start from there you will never know if your problem is with the FPGA, hardware or windows driver. B. Altera's eval kits break easily. The FPGA design only seems to get tested on the version of Quartus that was current when the design was done. Later versions of Quartus may break it! The reference designs from MEV are much better. C. Using an Avalon-MM based solution and SOPC builder works. Unfortunately, as others have warned, it's really slow! D. Don't bother with getting the PCIe specs until you know what you don't know. Does anyone know an easy route to a DMA solution?
