Programmable Logic: FPGAs get flexible for PCI Express

By Ismini Scouras
April 16, 2007 -- pldesignline.com

As the electronics industry shifts from the widely used PCI standard to PCI Express, FPGA vendors are poised to capitalize on the rapid expansion. They are offering products that address a range of system costs needs in various sectors, including PC, networking, industrial automation, medical and graphics/image processing.

A PCI Express fabric consists of point-to-point links that interconnect a set of components. Parts include a root complex, multiple endpoints or I/O devices, a switch and a PCI Express-PCI bridge. FPGA vendors are developing products for the full range of PCI Express applications, from endpoints to root complexes (see the table on this page).

While the major vendors--Actel, Altera, Lattice Semiconductor and Xilinx--are tackling PCI Express applications with products that comply with the specifications of the PCI-SIG industry organization, their products vary mainly at the physical layer.

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