An extremely low cost programmable PCI Express solution incorporates LatticeECP and LatticeEC FPGA devices, the Genesys Logic GL9711 PCI Express PHY and Northwest Logic’s PCI Express IP core.
Available now from Lattice Semiconductor is an extremely low cost programmable PCI Express solution that incorporates the LatticeECP and LatticeEC FPGA devices, the Genesys Logic GL9711 PCI Express PHY and Northwest Logic’s PCI Express IP core. Northwest Logic, the newest member of the Lattice ispLeverCore Connection programme, provides its single lane PCI Express IP core tailored to the LatticeEC and LatticeECP device architectures. PCI Express, the next generation of PCI, uses one, two, four, eight, 16 or 32 serial signals, each operating at 2.5Gbit/s, to provide a dramatic throughput improvement over PCI.

Additionally, PCI Express software is compatible with PCI, preserving the large investments already made in PCI software.

‘PCI Express has become a standard feature in the desktop and server computers shipping today’, said Stan Kopec, Lattice Vice President of Corporate Marketing.

‘The new solution we are announcing with Genesys Logic and Northwest Logic will enable our customers to rapidly develop and field cost-effective PCI Express solutions’, Kopec concluded.

‘The combination of our PHY, the Lattice FPGA and the Northwest Logic core provides a compliant PCI Express solution that can be easily and quickly adapted by customers to meet their own unique needs’, said Miller Lin, CTO at Genesys Logic.

‘This collaboration provides customers with a solution for PCI Express applications such as networking, imaging processing, consumer electronics, test equipment and storage’.

‘This solution will be a driver of the PCI Express market, and will enable designers to upgrade their device connectivity to multi-Gigabit speed at an affordable cost’, Lin concluded.

The LatticeECP-DSP FPGA, LatticeEC FPGA, the Genesys Logic GL9711 and the Northwest Logic PCI Express IP core are available now.

The overall solution costs less than US $13.00 for volumes of 250,000 units and above.

In addition, Northwest Logic’s PCI Express development board with the above components is available now.

The base board, which includes a LatticeECP-DSP device, costs $2995 and the daughtercard with the Genesys Logic PHY costs $495.