The Virtex-4 features, such as the programmable IDELAY and built-in FIFO support, simplifythe bridging of a high-speed, PCI-X core to large amounts of DDR-SDRAM memory. Onechallenge is meeting the PCI-X target initial latency specification. PCI-X Protocol Addendum tothe PCI Local Bus Specification Revision 2.0a ([Ref 6]) dictates that when a target signals adata transfer, "the target must do so within 16 clocks of the assertion of FRAME#." PCItermination transactions, such as Split Response/Complete, are commonly used to meet thelatency specifications. This method adds complexity to the design, as well as additional systemlatency. Another solution is to increase the ratio of the memory frequency to the PCI-X busfrequency. However, this solution increases the required power and clock resource usage.
This application note covers the design considerations of a system using the performance
features of the LogiCORE™ IP Advanced eXtensible Interface (AXI) Interconnect core. The
design focuses on high system throughput through the AXI Interconnect core with F
MAX
and
area optimizations in certain portions of the design.
The design uses five AXI video direct memory access (VDMA) engines to simultaneously move
10 streams (five transmit video streams and five receive video streams), each in 1920 x 1080p
format, 60 Hz refresh rate, and up to 32 data bits per pixel. Each VDMA is driven from a video
test pattern generator (TPG) with a video timing controller (VTC) block to set up the necessary
video timing signals. Data read by each AXI VDMA is sent to a common on-screen display
(OSD) core capable of multiplexing or overlaying multiple video streams to a single output video
stream. The output of the OSD core drives the DVI video display interface on the board.
Performance monitor blocks are added to capture performance data. All 10 video streams
moved by the AXI VDMA blocks are buffered through a shared DDR3 SDRAM memory and are
controlled by a MicroBlaze™ processor.
The reference system is targeted for the Virtex-6 XC6VLX240TFF1156-1 FPGA on the
Xilinx® ML605 Rev D evaluation board
