DMA AXI Transactions

Versal Adaptive SoC Technical Reference Manual (AM011)

Document ID
AM011
Release Date
2023-10-05
Revision
1.6 English

The DMA controller accesses system memory using a 44-bit address AXI interface on the LPD IOP switch. If the transaction is routed through the FPD SMMU, then 48 address bits are used. The DMA controller processes descriptor tables in system memory to manage data between system memory buffers and the RX and TX packet buffers. The descriptor tables include information for the DMA to gather data from one or more memory locations in to one or more packet buffers for the MAC transmitter to create Ethernet frames.

Packet Buffer DMA

The DMA uses separate transmit and receive descriptor lists. Each descriptor entry has parameters that point to a memory location, specify the data buffer size, and indicate if the entry is a start for the frame (SOF) or end of frame (EOF). Multiple descriptor entries pointing to memory locations enable Ethernet packets to be broken up and scattered about the memory space.

The DMA and packet buffers include the following advantages:

  • 64-bit AXI data bus width
  • Maximum line rate by storing multiple frames in the packet buffer
  • Efficient use of the AXI interface with FIFOs and bursting
  • Full and partial store with forward
  • Transmit TCP/IP checksum offload
  • Priority queuing
  • When a collision on the line occurs during transmission, the packet is automatically reaccessed directly from the packet buffer rather than having to re-fetch through the AXI interface
  • Received error packets are automatically dropped before any of the packets are presented to the AXI, reducing AXI activity
  • Manual RX packet flush capabilities
  • Optional RX packet flush when the AXI becomes bandwidth limited

AXI Coherency and Bufferability

The AXI transaction requests can be routed directly into the FPD main switch and then to system memory via the NoC, or to system memory via the FPD coherent interconnect with memory address translation.