Communicaiton with FPGA through PCI express port

[serialdaq]

Hi; we are designing a PCB containing a PEX8548 switch and a Virtex 5 FPGA beyond the switch.I will connect this design PCB through a PCIe expansion card.The design card and this expansion card have no driver for CVI.My duty is to test this hardware by reading and writing registers. But I have no idea about communication through PCIexpress in CVI(I write the test code in CVI) which port opening, reading and writing commands do I need to use for low level communication?Could you please help me about the way to reach FPGA registers of FPGA beyond PEX 8548 through the test Sw I'm writing in C in my Test Host PC?

[ebalci]

Hi serialdaq,

I have no experience in communicating over PCIexpress at low level.

However, that does not seem to be possible without a special hardware like a high-speed DIO.

After that you need to program your DIO with appropriate digital waveforms and timing such that you can access your card.

This should be the easier part if you already know the PCIexpress signaling.

Another option in test such highly digital boards is using the JTAG interface.

I believe the PEX switch and Virtex are both JTAG-capable devices. If so, that may be a good option.

We use Asset's ScanWorks as our boundary-scan automation tool and it has an API that allows it to be programmed over CVI.

[Gist]

Hello,

You might be able to use NI-VISA to communicate with a 3rd party PCI card.  You can either make those VISA calls directly in your application or perhaps create an instrument driver which organizes and combines them for future use by yourself or others as detailed in this NI Developer Zone document.