Details on the Sample Design - 1.3 English

The simple PIO design generated with the IP Core represents the required design structure for Tandem PCIe with Field Updates. The top-level design file, xilinx_pcie_uscale_ep.v, declares the top level pin list and instantiates pcie4_ultrascale_0 (the IP) and pcie_app_uscale (everything else). These two submodules are tagged with the HD.TANDEM and HD.RECONFIGURABLE properties respectively to instruct the implementation tools to follow both sets of rules during place and route.

The following figure shows the basic hierarchy of a Tandem PCIe with Field Updates design. The stage 1 bitstream is the pink module only, with stage 2 being comprised of the yellow and white. The partial bitstreams are constructed of just the yellow module. The names of the hierarchical instances from the sample design are shown.

Figure 1. Required Design Hierarchy for Tandem PCIe With Field Updates

Because the vast majority of the design must be placed in a Reconfigurable Partition, this vast majority must reside in the pcie_app_uscale hierarchical tree. This includes everything except any I/O and I/O logic that is located in bank 65 alongside the PCIe IP PERSTN pin. All user I/O buffers and logic, clocks, GTs and everything else must be in this level of hierarchy, so it can be swapped for the new version when ready. This requirement means that designs with IP Core that contain embedded I/Os that must be placed in the same bank as the reset should not be considered for Field Updates. Manual extraction of these I/Os would be necessary and is difficult to manage.

The three partitions in the design (Top, PCIe IP, and User Application) are all synthesized separately, with the two submodules marked out-of-context. This ensures the separate pieces are not optimized across boundaries, which would prevent the ability to swap these blocks for implementation. Any synthesis tool can be used, so long as automatic I/O insertion is disabled. With Vivado synthesis, this is done by selecting the -mode out_of_context option. Implementation of each version is done with the entire design in context. From the second version onward, the place and route results of the PCIe IP and the minimal top-level logic is locked so it cannot change.