According to the Xilinx documentation the GT10_PCI_EXPRESS_n primitive is only "supported for Virtex-II Pro X but not for Virtex-II or Virtex-II Pro". Does this mean that you can't use the Virtex-II Pro in a PCI-Express application? Is this related to the electrical idle, or are there other reasons?
Thanks Petter
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A: Because it messes up the order in which people normally read text.
Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing?
The GT10_PCI_EXPRESS_n primitives are based on the GT10 primitive that is only available in Virtex-II ProX. The protocol specific primitives are "convenience macros" that use the transceiver primitives and have all the attributes set for the specific protocol, so you don't need to figure it out yourself.
In Virtex-II Pro, you can use the GT primitive, and there are some "convenience macros" for ethernet, fibre channel, and infiniband. However, there isn't one for PCI Express, so you would need to use the GT primitive and then set all the attributes to get the desired result.
Your next question would probably be, "Why?" and I'm not sure so I'll file an enhancement CR on this issue. I suspect it is due to the Virtex-II Pro library being developed before PCI Express specifications were final. (And this is not the case for Virtex-II ProX...)
No. You can use Virtex-II Pro for PCI Express, and we do! If you want to read more about it, you can check out our IP datasheet for the PCI Express endpoint core, at:
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