Intel Edison PCI express capability

[NHump1]

Hey all,

I'm new to the Edison and I seem to be getting conflicting information regard PCI e.

Here it states http://www.intel.com/support/edison/sb/CS-035182.htm Intel® Edison Boards — Frequently Asked Questions

"It does have I/O features found on Desktop boards or laptops that are not easily found on Arduino boards. It has features such as full USB host and PCI express capability."

I've look at the PINOUT here http://www.intel.com/support/edison/sb/CS-035259.htm Intel® Edison Boards — Pin-out and I don't see anything related to PCI e.

Also I've looked at the product brief here http://download.intel.com/support/edison/sb/edison_pb_331179002.pdf http://download.intel.com/support/edison/sb/edison_pb_331179002.pdf and I don't see anything related to PCI e.

Does the edison have PCI e but not through the 70 pin hirose connect do I have to white wire some pins off the chip directly to make it work out?

If there is no native support is it possible to bitbang PCI e? Anyone done something similar?

Any information related to PCI e would we very helpful. I have an application that needs it.

I want the edison be host to a pci e card. I was planning on building my own custom board to support it.

Thank you.

[Carlos_M_Intel · Accepted solution]

Hi IntelEddiPci ,

Thank you for letting us know about the statement "It does have I/O features found on Desktop boards or laptops that are not easily found on Arduino boards. It has features such as full USB host and PCI express capability." In the http://www.intel.com/support/edison/sb/CS-035182.htm FAQ for Edison. As you know, the Edison doesn't have a PCI Express port neither pins specifically oriented to connect a PCI card. We are going to report this in order to change the document.

I haven't seen a project like this, attaching a PCI card to the Edison but if you want to do something like this you will need:

1. To enable the PCI support in a new image.

2. Create a custom board (As you mentioned) in order to be able to connect the card and the board. If you want to do this, you can check the Schematics for the Galileo board [http://download.intel.com/support/galileo/sb/galileo_schematic.pdf Gen1 and http://download.intel.com/support/galileo/sb/galileo_fabh_schem_120514.pdf Gen2] that have a PCI Express port so you could see the internal connections.

Another alternative could be to use a converter USB-PCI.

I hope this gives you an idea on how to start

Regards,

Charlie

[NHump1]

Thanks for the clarification.

I assume i am going to have to go after the pins I need directly and not through the hirose.

Do you expect it would be easier to go after the quark or the atom processor?

Is there some documentation or place I can go to find the pinout of the processors or layout of the Edison board. Maybe some Gerber files?

Has anything in particular been burned/cut out of this build of the atom processor or quark that would stop pci e use or is it just not exposed to the user easily?

Thanks

[Carlos_M_Intel]

Hi IntelEddiPci,

You could try with both, I would start using the Atom from Linux side to check the pins and signals that would need for attaching a PCI card

All the available information is located in https://www-ssl.intel.com/content/www/us/en/do-it-yourself/support/maker/edison/edison-documents-and... Intel® Edison Boards Hardware Support

The Edison doesn't have pins for PCI so you need to use an interface like USB, SPI or I2C in order to attach a PCI card.

The document you mentioned in your first post is wrong but the Galileo board does have a mini PCI express port.

Regards,

Charlie