DE5a-Net-DDR4: PCIe connection

[vinmor]

Good morning everyone,

I have the DE5a-Net-DDR4 board with Arria 10 and I need to use it with OpenVINO 2019 R1.
I have two questions about the PCIe connection.

1)
The DE5a-Net board has Support for PCIe x8, but my PC motherboard has one PCIe x16 slot.
Can I plug the board directly into the x16 slot? Or does it only need x8 slot?

2)
In the manual attached to the DE5a-Net card, the following sentence is shown:
"If the DE5a-Net is mounted onto PC through the PCIe slot, the 6-pin PCIe external power connector must be connected from PC power supply. If the PC power supply is not connected, the FPGA on DE5a-Net could be damage due to insufficient power supplied".

However, in the guide "OpenVINO Installation Guide 2019R1 for DE5a-Net-DDR4", in chapter 2.5 "Setup the DE5a-Net-DDR4 to the host PC", the following sentence is shown:
"Connect PC’s 12V PCI Express 6-pin power source to the DE5a-Net-DDR4 (if there’s not, ignore this step)".

So, is the connection to PC power supply needed or can it be avoided if PCI Express 6-pin power source is not present?

Thanks in advance,
Best regards.

[Wincent_Altera]

Hi,

Thanks for contacting Intel. I'm assigned to support request.

I'll investigate and get back to you soon. Thanks for your patience.

Best regards,

Wincent_Intel

[Wincent_Altera · Accepted solution]

Hi,

Question 1,

A PCIe x8 card will physically fit into a PCIe x16 slot, and it will work as expected.

The extra lanes on the PCIe x16 slot won't cause any issues.

The card will only use the available 8 lanes and operate at the x8 speed.

Question 2,

Please follow the manual in DE5at-net by connecting the 6-pin PCIe external power connector to avoid damage to the board.

Let me know if further clarification is needed.

Regards,

Wincent_Intel

[Wincent_Altera]

Hi,

I wish to follow up with you about this case.

Do you have any further questions on this matter ?

​​​​​​​Else I would like to have your permission to close this forum ticket

Regards,

Wincent_Intel

[Wincent_Altera]

Hi

As we do not receive any response from you on the previous question/reply/answer that we have provided. Please login to ‘https://supporttickets.intel.com’, view details of the desire request, and post a feed/response within the next 15 days to allow me to continue to support you.

After 15 days, this thread will be transitioned to community support.

The community users will be able to help you on your follow-up questions.

If your support experience falls below a 9 out of 10, I kindly request the opportunity to rectify it before concluding our interaction. If the issue cannot be resolved, please inform me of the cause so that I can learn from it and strive to enhance the quality of future service experiences.

Regards,

Wincent_Intel

[vinmor]

Thanks so much for the quick replies!

For question number 1 everything is clear!

For question number 2, my doubt arose because in the OpenVINO guide it is written that the step about the power supply via 6 PIN cable can be skipped if this cable is not present.
My PC's power supply doesn't have the 6 PIN cable, but if I understood correctly, I still have to equip the power supply with this cable to avoid damage, am I right?

Thank you,
Best regards

[FvM]

Hi,
if card can be supplied without external 12 V supply depends on the power consumption of your application. If the logic resources are fully utilized, it will be required. Surely your PC power supply has some kind of 12 V connectors that can be converted to 6 pin through adapters available on the market.