Xilinx Offers 5 Gbps FPGA-Based Tool Compliant with PCI Express Version 2.0
November 28, 2008 // Published as a news service by IHS
Xilinx Inc. announced its Virtex-5 FXT field-programmable gate array (FPGA) platform is fully compliant with version 2.0 of the peripheral component interconnect (PCI) Express (PCIe) standard.
The Virtex-5 FXT FPGA platform passed the last round of specification testing and was added to the PCI Special Interest Group (PCI-SIG) integrator's list as part of a range of design resources from Xilinx and its alliance members that support PCIe 2.0 applications.
With built-in 6.5 Gbps Rocket IO GTX transceiver technology, Virtex-5 FXT FPGAs support the PCIe 2.0 specification, which doubles the interconnect bit rate over the previous version from 2.5 Gbps to 5 Gbps to support high-bandwidth applications.
The recently announced Virtex-5 TXT FPGA platform, which has up to 48 RocketIO GTX transceivers, also supports the PCIe 2.0 standard. Drawing less than 150 mW typical, per transceiver at 5 Gbps, the RocketIO GTX transceivers enable designers to realize high-speed PCIe 2.0 performance on an FPGA with minimal power consumption, Xilinx said.
"The PCIe 2.0 standard offers the highest bandwidth and most power optimized version of the standard to date and is critical for high-end applications in the telecommunications and server markets where our Virtex-5 devices are widely used," said Mustafa Veziroglu, vice president of product solutions management at Xilinx.
"Our long track record of supporting PCIe, and our own product strategy that includes mapping to the standard's capabilities, enables us to offer designers a proven pathway to implement each new version of PCIe standard."
Source: Xilinx Inc.