Consolidate bugs of PCIe examples

[Altera_Forum]

Hi,  

I'm playing around with PCIe on Arria II.  As you know, in order to use PCIe, you need a lot of "supporting" logics, such as computing the available credit, arbitration between multiple DMA/Tx/Completor ... etc .. However, Altera doesn't have a "formal" release for these ware and I've been digging on the Example provided whenever the PCIe core is instantiate.   So, my guess is that this "reference design" is not BUG-FREE. Hopefully, the mass community can update bugs so that this core is stable enough.   So far, I found 1 bug:    --- Quote Start ---   - in the file altpcierd_rxtx_downstream_intf.v:  - the logic that controls the mem_wr_ena signal, if(rx_start_write==1'b1) begin ....  else if(rx_dv==1'b1)  mem_wr_ena <= 1'b1; mem_wr_addr <= mem_wr_addr+1; else  ...  ------ The error happens when you poll one of the registers while DMA is running.  it condition should be (rx_dv = 1'b1 && cstate_rx= RX_DV_PAYLD) ...  without condition of cstate_rx, the register is accidentally written by rx_dv which is asserted during some other transactions,    --- Quote End ---  

[Altera_Forum]

Another bug,  

   --- Quote Start ---   - in the file altpcierd_rxtx_downstream_intf.v - the logic that controls the signal tx_busy tx_busy is asserted too late.  It is asserted on the 2nd cycle after arbitration is granted and data is valid for transmission. The error occurs when the PCIe tx_stream_ready is de-asserted right in the middle cycle after ARBITRATION is granted and TX_BUSY is asserted, the whole state machine gets stuck. See picture,  the tx_sel_pcnt is the abitration grant signal, it is deasserted right after the statemachine sees that it is granted access. The state-machine is stuck there wait for acknowledgement from the PCIe core.    http://www.alteraforum.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=3177&stc=1&d=1287051603     --- Quote End ---  

[Altera_Forum]

FYI, i believe that all DMA Tx engines in the example should assert tx_busy 1 clock earlier to claim the bus access.

[Altera_Forum]

the PCIe system is now quite stable and can stream data to PC at the datarate of ~10.5Gb/s. :).

[Altera_Forum]

Thank you very much for share it. 

I'm starting now to implement PCIe on StratixIV and know in advance some bugs will make me loose less time.

[Altera_Forum]

• chaining_dma: search for »-- todo …«, e.g. in altpcierd_cpld_rx_buffer.vhd 

 • chaining_dma: complete lack of completion timeout mechanism (for DMA read requests).

[Altera_Forum]

Has anyone achieved more throughput for the PCIe x8 gen2 reference design? 

Theoretically, it is possible to run at 5Gb/s x 8 = 40 Gb/s. Am I correct? We can stream to PC at about 13Gb/s right now.

[Altera_Forum]

Is there an Errata list on Chaining DMA PCIe Reference Design?

[Altera_Forum]

Is it true, that all Altera PCIe reference designs ( AN456 and AN431 ) only transmits TLP packets for bandwidth measurement, and therefore are not practical reference designs for streaming applications?