Multi Channel DMA Intel® FPGA IP for PCI Express Design Example User Guide

ID 683517
Date 4/29/2022
Public

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2.5. Avalon-ST Device-side Packet Loopback

Figure 22. Avalon-ST Device-side Packet Loopback

This design example performs H2D and D2H multi channel DMA via Avalon-ST streaming. The Multi Channel DMA for PCI Express IP core provides four independent Avalon-ST Source/Sink ports. DMA channel and Avalon-ST port has 1:1 mapping.

For H2D streaming, Multi Channel DMA sends the data to Avalon-ST loopback FIFOs via four Avalon-ST Source ports. For D2H streaming, Multi Channel DMA receives the data from Avalon-ST loopback FIFOs via Avalon-ST Sink ports.

In this device-side loopback example, the Host first sets up memory locations within the Host memory. Data from the Host memory is then sent to the device-side memory by the Multi Channel DMA for PCI Express IP via H2D DMA operations. Finally, the IP loops this data back to the Host memory using D2H DMA operations.

In addition, the design example enables Avalon-MM PIO master which bypasses the DMA path. It allows application to perform single, non-bursting register read/write operation with on-chip memory block.

The design example includes the Multi Channel DMA for PCI Express IP Core with the parameters you specified and following components:
  • resetIP – Reset Release IP that holds the Multi Channel DMA in reset until the entire FPGA fabric enters user mode
  • MEM_PIO – On-chip memory for the PIO operation. Connected to the MCDMA Avalon-MM PIO Master (rx_pio_master) port that is mapped to PCIe BAR2
  • FIFO_ST0 , FIFO_ST1 , FIFO_ST2 , and FIFO_ST3 Avalon-ST FIFOs for streaming loopback. Connected to the MCDMA Avalon-ST Source (h2d_st_x) and Avalon-ST Sink (d2h_st_x) ports
Transfer mode options supported in test application software (perfq_app) command line:
  • PIO test: -o
  • DMA test: -i (performance loopback operation where the Tx and Rx are run in two different threads), -v (enable data validation, which will perform a data integrity check).
    • -i without -v flag displays the throughput per channel

For a description of which driver(s) to use with this design example, refer to Driver Support.