Re: Build your own add-on board for PCI bus

From: Ingo Cyliax (cyliax_at_cs.indiana.edu)
Date: 04/26/04 

Date: Mon, 26 Apr 2004 06:15:57 +0000 (UTC)

implementing a single port PCI host adapter that talks to one card
is easier than implementing a target controller that has to talk
to various host adapters and OSes. You do not have to implement
all of the xfer modes and worry about enumerting devices, or
interrupts etc... I don't know if any of the miniPCI/PCI WLAN cards
require bus mastering or not.

If you want a simple WLAN interface for WiFi consider PRISM chipset
based PCMCIA/CF cards. They will run in 8bit mode, require few
address lines and don't require DMA to read/write to them. The hardware
interface is quite trivial and software isn't too bad. There are
Linux drivers.

ZWorld/RabbitSemiconductor has a devkit which is reasonably cheap,
and provides hardware, a WiFi card and software drivers. One of the
sample application does what you describe, it scans for hosts and
reads out signals/noise figures.

See ya, -ingo

Sr. Application Engineer, ZWorld Inc.

In article <AORic.4305$IO6.3975@twister.socal.rr.com>,
cpex <cpex@NOSPAMmyrealbox.com> wrote:
>On a related note. How difficult would it be to control a single pci device
>with a microcontroller?
>
>I am asking this because I want to add 802.11 to a project I am working on.
>I only need a very small subset of 802.11 functionality. I dont need to send
>tcp/ip packets just get some network statistics (signal strengths and such).
>And as I am on a shoe string budget (computer interfacing project for
>university) dont want to shell out for some 802.11 developers kit.
>
>Josiah
>
>
>"Ingo Cyliax" <cyliax@cs.indiana.edu> wrote in message
>news:c6bmbe$s9b$1@hood.uits.indiana.edu...
>>
>> PCI is not for the faint of heart. You would have to use either
>> a pre-existing PCI interface chip (PLX or equiv.), or an FPGA/CPLD
>> which has PCI compatible IO pins. In either case you have to
>> define what your interface looks like, and deal with providing
>> information for enumeration. I have designed from scratch target
>> and master implementations in FPGA using the PCI specification.
>> They finally worked, but it took some time and involved a fair
>> amount of time with a logic and bus analyzer to figure out what
>> is going on.
>>
>> In addition you will have to deal with device drivers. I don't
>> know what OS you are considering. In Linux it's pretty easy to
>> find a card and write a kernel module to map it into IO/address
>> space, so you can talk to it via an application program. Never
>> tried in Windows, I explored it, but it looked daunting.
>>
>> In many cases, you are probably better off starting with a generic
>> digital/analog PCI IO board and programming it at a higher level;
>> the card's vendor will usually supply you with a device driver.
>>
>> I guess in the end, it depends on what you want to do and how
>> many you need to build, etc... I.e. are you considering PCI
>> because of connectivity, throughput, etc...
>>
>> Alternate interfaces, which are a bit more friendly to develop
>> with.
>>
>> ISAbus - this is pretty easy. Lot's of examples and you can use
>> simple TTL/CMOS logic chips to implement. You can access via user
>> program under Windows 98/DOS and Linux, without writing a low
>> level driver. PC104, PCMCIA and CompactFlash are all form factor
>> adaptation of ISA bus. PCMCIA/CompactFlahs is more complex to
>> implent.
>>
>> USB - easier than PCI. there are inteface chips available which
>> make it trivial to design with. E.g. TPD245BM is a USB to parallel
>> FIFO interface, which looks like a VCOM under windows.
>>
>> See ya, -ingo
>>
>> In article <MPG.1af3caba160903289896e5@news3.prserv.net>,
>> krw <krw@att.biz> wrote:
>> >In article <3nii80ddo6q5r0qeb38toodr54uoicm0tt@4ax.com>,
>> >jjlarkin@highSNIPlandTHIStechPLEASEnology.com says...
>> >> On Sat, 24 Apr 2004 02:20:24 +1000, <PCI> wrote:
>> >>
>> >> >Is there any "simple step-by-step guide to PCI bus interfacing" like
>> >> >documentation+example circuit showing how one can build his/her own
>add-on
>> >> >board for PCI bus?
>> >> >
>> >> >
>> >>
>> >> PLX has a nice bunch of general-purpose PCI interface chips, plus lots
>> >> of appnotes and eval boards. But PCI can be a little nasty, first
>> >> time.
>> >
>> >I didn't find PCI terribly hard the first time out, though I let PLX do
>> >all the hard stuff too. ;-) The only screw-up I made was the length of
>> >the clock trace. It "worked" anyway (I wasn't going into production so
>> >it got left as is).
>> >
>> >> http://www.plxtech.com/products/io_accelerators/default.asp
>> >>
>> >> Lately, for test systems, we've been buying motherboards that have
>> >> both PCI and ISA slots ($10!), a CPU chip, and a nice rackmount
>> >> enclosure ($70 maybe). ISA interfacing is a jillion times easier.
>> >
>> >No question. ISA is a piece of cake.
>> >
>> >> Has anybody ever done a PCI interface made out of just standard logic
>> >> chips? *That* would be a challenge!
>> >
>> >It can be done in an FPGA, but it needs to be one designed with PCI in
>> >mind (some can, some can't). There are cores available for some FPGAs.
>> >I used the PLX chip (9054) in front of my FPGA as a bridge. I didn't
>> >see any reason to use expensive FPGA logic and pins to do what was
>> >cheap (and working) in a fairly cheap PLX chip. PCI simply can't be
>> >done, and meet specs anyway, with "standard logic" chips.
>> >
>> >I highly recommend "PCI System Architecture" by Shanley/Anderson
>> >(MindShare) for anyone contemplating tackling a PCI project. (ISBN 0-
>> >201-30974-2). It's also available on the web ($20, IIRC) at
>> >http://www.mindshare.com/
>> >
>> >--
>> > Keith
>>
>>
>> --
>> /* Ingo Cyliax, cyliax@ezcomm.com, Tel: 812-391-0895 */
>>
>
> 

-- 
/* Ingo Cyliax, cyliax@ezcomm.com, Tel: 812-391-0895 */

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