Northwest Logic Announces Availability Of A Complete PCI Express 2.0 Solution For Xilinx Virtex-5FXT Devices

This solution provides a high-performance, hardware-proven PCI Express 2.0 and DDR3 SDRAM development platformBeaverton, Oregon, April 21, 2008

-- Northwest Logic today announced the immediate availability of a high-performance, hardware-proven PCI Express® 2.0 solution for the Xilinx’s Virtex®-5 FXT platform.  This solution combines Northwest Logic’s full-featured PCI Express 2.0 Core, DMA Back-End Core, DMA Driver and PCI Express GUI to provide a complete, pre-packaged PCI Express 2.0 solution.  It also optionally includes Northwest Logic’s high-performance DDR3 SDRAM Controller and Multi-Port Front-End Cores.  The solution enables high-performance, multi-DMA engine PCI Express 2.0 designs to be quickly developed for the Virtex-5FXT FPGAs.

Northwest Logic’s PCI Express 2.0 Solution for the Virtex-5FXT includes the PCI Express 2.0 Core and the DMA Back-End Core.  These cores support high-performance, on-demand, multi-DMA engine operation with simplified register and target interfaces.  This solution supports 5 Gbit/s PCI Express 2.0 operation in Virtex-5FXT device.  In addition, Northwest Logic provides a companion DMA Driver (Window or Linux) to manage the DMA engine and the associated descriptors.

Northwest Logic’s PCI Express Solution optionally includes Northwest Logic’s high-performance DDR3/DDR2/DDR SDRAM Controller Cores.  These cores are part of Northwest Logic’s Memory Interface Solution which also includes AHB/AXI Interface, Multi-Port, Reorder, RMW, ECC, Memory Test add-on cores.  All of Northwest Logic’s cores are available for use with Virtex-5 FPGAs and in ASICs.  For more information on Northwest Logic’s Virtex-5FXT PCI Express 2.0 Solution and its individual components, please contact Northwest Logic at info@nwlogic.com or visit www.nwlogic.com/products/products.html.

The Virtex-5FXT is the latest device in Xilinx’s Virtex-5 family.  “Built on 65-nm technology, the Virtex-5 FXT devices are the industry’s first FPGAs with embedded PowerPC440 processor blocks, high-speed RocketIO™ GTX transceivers supporting 5Gbps PCI Express 2.0 protocol and dedicated XtremeDSP™ processing capabilities.  It offers designers high levels of system integration and performance,” said Anil Telikepalli, Senior Manager of Solutions Marketing at Xilinx.  “The combination of  Xilinx’s Virtex-5FXT  and Northwest Logic’s PCI Express 2.0 and DDR3 SDRAM Controller Cores will enable companies to quickly develop and bring to market a high-performance, cost-effective PCI Express 2.0/DDR3 SDRAM applications.”  For more information on Virtex-5FXT devices please visit: http://www.xilinx.com.

Northwest Logic’s PCI Express 2.0 Solution is fully hardware validated using HiTech Global’s HTG-V5-PCIE-DDR3 board.  This board includes a Virtex-5FX70T, a four lane PCI Express 2.0 interface, DDR2 SDRAM SODIMM, and on-board DDR3 SDRAM memories.  This card is ideal as a PCI Express 2.0/DDR3 SDRAM FPGA development and ASIC prototyping platform.  “We are pleased to be the first provider of a hardware proven solution using Xilinx’s Virtex-5FXT device and  Northwest Logic’s complete PCI Express 2.0 and DDR3 SDRAM IP cores.” said Cyrus Merati, Vice President of HiTech Global.  This board is available for immediate purchase.  For complete details of this board please visit: http://www.hitechglobal.com/boards/v5ddr3_pcie.htm.  A full Board Support Package including FPGA, Driver and GUI Binaries are shipped with this board and also available at: www.nwlogic.com.

As part of the development and validation effort of the PCI Express 2.0 Solution, Northwest Logic used the Lecroy PETracerSummit Gen2 Protocol Analyzer.  “The Summit analyzer was extremely useful during the initial bring-up process.  It provided easy and thorough analysis of the bus transactions for PCI Express 2.0 Core development” said Brian Breiling, Senior Design Engineer at Northwest Logic.  For more information please visit http://www.lecroy.com.

“Our close collaboration with Xilinx, HiTech Global and the support of Lecroy enabled Northwest Logic to quickly develop a complete PCI Express 2.0/DDR3 SDRAM solution.  This solution is hardware-proven and provides a robust platform for quickly developing a high-performance PCI Express 2.0 and DDR3 SDRAM designs.” said Brian Daellenbach, President of Northwest Logic.

About Northwest Logic
Northwest Logic, founded in 1995 and located in Beaverton, Oregon, provides high-performance, easy-to-use IP cores for FPGAs and ASICs. These IP cores include memory controller, PCI Express and PCI cores.

Key benefits of Northwest Logic’s IP cores include:

• High performance – support high clock rate and high throughput
• Easy to use – simple user interface, easy to configure, etc.
• Fully hardware validated
• Provided with a comprehensive verification suite
• Support for all Xilinx FPGAs and migration to ASICs
• Development boards and driver support available
• Top quality technical support
• Customization and integration services available

For additional information, visit www.nwlogic.com or contact info@nwlogic.com.