Industry Expert Blogs

This week I was asked to clarify what the PCIe Gen3 protocol speed is, to confirm, PCIe Gen3 speed is 8Gb/s per lane. PCIe Gen 1 is 2.5Gb/s and PCIe Gen2 is 5Gb/s. Yes I know I’m usually seen as the prototyping guy, (Or Mick “I’m not dead yet” Posner thanks to my pneumonia) but I also happen to double up as a protocol expert. One of the key advantages of FPGA-Based prototyping is the ability to model real world interfaces at speed so to be a prototyping expert you basically have to be a protocol expert as well. The above eye diagram (click image to view full size) is measured on the HAPS-70 (-2) speed grade systems running one of the many DesignWare PCIe Gen3 controller validation tests for interoperability and compliance testing. That is a good looking wide open eye!

I sneaked into the lab and snapped off this picture.

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