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Hi folks, I am starting to implement a simple PCI core using Spartan-II. I
have already implemented the basic read and write transfer before I find
this IDSEL signal which is used by PCI configuration transfers. My PCI board
just needs to read and write data from/to a fixed address. There is no need
for burst or back-to-back, nor plug-and-play. Do I need to implement the PCI
configuration? How about plug-and-play?

Mike

"Mike Zhang" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:9Z3We.933$Jm.252@newssv[email protected]. .
> Hi folks, I am starting to implement a simple PCI core using Spartan-II. I
> have already implemented the basic read and write transfer before I find
> this IDSEL signal which is used by PCI configuration transfers. My PCI board
> just needs to read and write data from/to a fixed address. There is no need
> for burst or back-to-back, nor plug-and-play. Do I need to implement the PCI
> configuration? How about plug-and-play?

If you're talking about some sort of embedded system where you know exactly
what all the PCI devices in the system are and where they are in memory, I
suppose you can "get away" with not bothering to implement configuration
reads/writes. However, if this is supposed to be a standard plug-in PCI card
for a PC, Mac, etc., you absolutely need to implement configuration
reads/writes -- without them, the BIOS and OS will have no idea where you card
is, so there's a chance some other card will overlay you card's address space
and cause the system to malfunction, freeze, etc.

Assuming you're getting paid for your engineering time, from what you're
describing, I have a suspicion you'd be better off using some "off the shelf"
PCI interface IC such as those from PLX or Cypress... or at least drop in
Xilinx's (or someone else's) PCI core -- it'll quickly pay for itself!

---Joel Kolstad

Thank you Joel!
It sounds like there is no short-cut for me on this. Yes, I would have
chosen another route had I not already spent so much time and effort on
this
one. I will stick with this plan and see what happen.
Thanks!

Mike


Joel Kolstad wrote:
> "Mike Zhang" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:9Z3We.933$[email protected]. .
> > Hi folks, I am starting to implement a simple PCI core using Spartan-II. I
> > have already implemented the basic read and write transfer before I find
> > this IDSEL signal which is used by PCI configuration transfers. My PCI board
> > just needs to read and write data from/to a fixed address. There is no need
> > for burst or back-to-back, nor plug-and-play. Do I need to implement the PCI
> > configuration? How about plug-and-play?
>
> If you're talking about some sort of embedded system where you know exactly
> what all the PCI devices in the system are and where they are in memory, I
> suppose you can "get away" with not bothering to implement configuration
> reads/writes. However, if this is supposed to be a standard plug-in PCI card
> for a PC, Mac, etc., you absolutely need to implement configuration
> reads/writes -- without them, the BIOS and OS will have no idea where you card
> is, so there's a chance some other card will overlay you card's address space
> and cause the system to malfunction, freeze, etc.
>
> Assuming you're getting paid for your engineering time, from what you're
> describing, I have a suspicion you'd be better off using some "off the shelf"
> PCI interface IC such as those from PLX or Cypress... or at least drop in
> Xilinx's (or someone else's) PCI core -- it'll quickly pay for itself!
>
> ---Joel Kolstad