RapidIO®: Customized Implementation Using Avalon® Streaming Pass-Through Interface

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This design example demonstrates the use of the Avalon Streaming (Avalon-ST) pass-through interface in RapidIO as a platform to implement simple customized transactions. By using this interface, users have more flexibility in terms of writing and organizing packet formats, apart from other regular module functions in the logical layer.

In order to simplify this design example, other logical layer modules such as the I/O Master and Slave are disabled. This design showcases a 2.5-Gbaud 1x Serial RapidIO Link, with Avalon-ST pass-through interface enabled at the GUI.

The overview of the design architecture is shown in the figure below:

The Process Flow

  1. Port initialized (RapidIO link up)
  2. RapidIO initialization
  3. Send write packets (similar to NWrite transactions)
    • System Controller A commands Packet Generator to send packets to RapidIO A
    • Packets are sent across the link to RapidIO B and stored in RAM by System Controller B
    • The write packet can be adjustable for payload size and number of packets
  4. Send doorbell messages
    • System Controller A commands Packet Generator to send doorbell messages to RapidIO A
    • Doorbell messages are sent across the link to RapidIO B. They are received and processed by Doorbell Processor in System Controller B
  5. The doorbell messages carry instructions which are interpreted by the Doorbell Processor. There are two example instructions: Invert Packets and Retrieve Data
    • For Invert Packets, Doorbell Processor reads data from RAM, inverts it, and stores it back in RAM (can be in different address)
    • For Retrieve Data, Doorbell Processor reads data from RAM and sends it back to RapidIO A
    • These two instructions show that RapidIO A can initiate action items for RapidIO B to execute. You may use this to create specific instruction packets to your own implementations

This low-level design implementation can also be used as an example to do the following customizations:

  1. Add or change packet parameters or format (e.g. address-payload-address-payload) or data streaming
  2. Handle different feature sending sequence in one port instead of on round-robin basis in Transport Layer
  3. Support custom functions which are generally not included by the RapidIO MegaCore function

However, to handle the customizations stated above, users need to fill the Physical and Transport Layer fields of a packet header manually. Other steps, such as packet format decoding and controlling the packet traffic, are also required for the smooth operation of this Avalon-ST Pass-Through Interface.

Download the .zip file used in this design example: avST_passthr_interface.zip

Note: This design example has been tested in simulation.