PCIe "Enumeration" SW on NIOS II ?

Are you sure your setup will work? The Stratix IV Development board does not generate a 100MHz PCI output clock via its edge connector.

Can you create a PCIe RootPort without a 100MHz source? Or have you hacked the board to support it?

--- Quote Start ---

I have the Stratix IV dev. board, configured as RooPort, plugged into a chassis with a number of other PCIe boards

with a PLX PCIe switch

--- Quote End ---

Are you sure the slot you have plugged the PCIe board into can be operated as a RootPort. I suspect its really just a slave port.

U-Boot will have PCI enumeration source. Try building U-Boot for NIOS II. Linux also has enumeration support, so you could try NIOS II uCLinux or Linux.

Cheers,

Dave

The 100Mhz is only on the NIOS II Avalon bus, the PCIe Avalon-MM- FIFOs have 100Mhz on one side and 50Mhz on the PCIe side. I can send config. packets to the PCIe IP

and it responds correctly. Can you tell me more about "building UBoot for NIOS II" ? (I am a HW guy...) We don't intend to use Linux for now.

Thanks,

Shvitzer

--- Quote Start ---

The 100Mhz is only on the NIOS II Avalon bus, the PCIe Avalon-MM- FIFOs have 100Mhz on one side and 50Mhz on the PCIe side.

--- Quote End ---

You state that you've created a PCIe "root complex" device. However, I believe this only makes sense if you are in the "system" slot of the bus. If you are in a peripheral slot, you would configure the PCIe as an "end-point". An end-point can still enumerate the PCIe bus, but it has a 100MHz input clock as a reference.

--- Quote Start ---

I can send config. packets to the PCIe IP and it responds correctly.

--- Quote End ---

Sending from what? Your NIOS processing inside the FPGA, or another peripheral in your motherboard?

--- Quote Start ---

Can you tell me more about "building UBoot for NIOS II" ? (I am a HW guy...) We don't intend to use Linux for now.

--- Quote End ---

Sorry, I haven't used it. Create a new thread with a new title and someone else can probably help.

Cheers,

Dave

OK, my design has a NIOS II based SOC and a PCIe Altera IP in the top-level. The NIOS II and all peripherals run on 100Mhz but interface via MM-FIFOs at 50Mhz to the PCIe IP. I have a simple utility programs that sends config. packets to the PCIe IP and it replies correctly with device ID, etc. The card is plugged in a system slot on the bus AND it provides the PCIe clock to the bus. I took over the design from someone else... so I am not sure really what differentiate a RootPort from an EndPoint other than who provides the 100Mhz clock. I did not know that an EndPoint can do enumeration.

Thanks,

Shvitzer

--- Quote Start ---

OK, my design has a NIOS II based SOC and a PCIe Altera IP in the top-level. The NIOS II and all peripherals run on 100Mhz but interface via MM-FIFOs at 50Mhz to the PCIe IP. I have a simple utility programs that sends config. packets to the PCIe IP and it replies correctly with device ID, etc. The card is plugged in a system slot on the bus AND it provides the PCIe clock to the bus. I took over the design from someone else... so I am not sure really what differentiate a RootPort from an EndPoint other than who provides the 100Mhz clock. I did not know that an EndPoint can do enumeration.

--- Quote End ---

You took over the design from someone else, so first you need to understand it.

If you can answer my questions, then you'll be a little further along in understanding the design you have inherited.

Can you post a link to the motherboard or backplane that you are plugging the board into.

As I commented above, the Stratix IV Development Board is a PCIe peripheral board, so it only makes sense that it gets configured as a PCIe end-point. When your test system powers on, the root-complex (typically a PC) writes to configuration space to tell each of the PCIe-to-PCIe bridges what their address ranges are, and writes to PCIe peripherals to tell them what their PCIe addresses are. If your root-complex (host) was running Linux, you could type lspci and see the addresses that the BIOS assigned to the PCIe bridges and peripheral boards.

You comment that

--- Quote Start ---

I have a simple utility programs that sends config. packets to the PCIe IP and it replies correctly with device ID, etc.

--- Quote End ---

Where is this program running? On a NIOS II processor inside an FPGA on the Stratix IV kit, or on the host PC?

Cheers,

Dave

This program is running in the NIOS II, inside the FPGA (I wrote it), there is no PC anywhere in sight, the Stratix IV card is the only card running in a Cyclone chassis.

http://www.cyclone.com/products/expansion_backplanes/pcie2-428436.php

Since we do not intend to connect to a PC the Stratix IV is the RootPort and so was modified to provide the 100Mhz clock and the NIOS II SW needs to do enumeration.

Shvitzer

--- Quote Start ---

the Stratix IV is the RootPort and so was modified to provide the 100Mhz clock and the NIOS II SW needs to do enumeration.

--- Quote End ---

OK, this clarifies your setup, thanks.

Since your Stratix IV GX is the root-complex, it is responsible for performing the tasks that a BIOS would in a PC. This same issue occurs when you design a system with a PowerPC as the root-complex, and the solution there is to use U-Boot to configure the PCIe. So your solution would also be to get U-Boot built with PCIe support for NIOS II. I've no idea if that has been done before. Check out the latest U-Boot source and try to built it. If it fails, then post a message to the U-Boot mailing list. Don't just email asking for help, email what you are trying to do, and what fails when you try to build U-Boot.

Cheers,

Dave

Thanks Dave. I will do that.

Cheers,

Shvitzer

Dear Shvitzer,

I am facing the same problem.

The solution can be found in u-boot?

Or you had to write the entire code?

Regards,

Michele.

--- Quote Start ---

Thanks Dave. I will do that.

Cheers,

Shvitzer

--- Quote End ---

Hi Michele,

Yes, we ended up writing our own Enumerating software which runs on NIOS II. My SW partner wrote it from scratch. There is a very good book called "PCI Express System Architecture" which I would strongly recommend you read.

S.