WANTED:   'microcontroller' which has PCIe - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: frogblender
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: July 27, 2021, 06:54:10 pm
content: Looking for a "microcontroller" (can I call it a micro? perhaps just "controller") which supports PCIe, either as a host or a peripheral (ideally both).Other nice to haves:- cheap- free IDE- onboard ram?- ??Any ideas would be appreciated.

author: spostma
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: July 27, 2021, 07:32:50 pm
content: https://rockpi.org/rockpi4has a M2 PCIe slotRaspberry4 Compute Module has PCIeRpi4 can be modified to connect to PCIe riser cards (very informative site):https://pipci.jeffgeerling.com/Rumours say that a rPi model 4A is in the works that replaces the USB3 chipset with a PCIe connector:https://www.tomshardware.com/news/raspberry-pi-4-a-possible-features

author: SiliconWizard
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 27, 2021, 07:45:31 pm
content: As I said, I don't know of any microcontroller with PCIe. Someone else may, but I kind of doubt that exists.I think someone gave you interface ICs that you could add to some MCU to give you PCIe access. I've never used any, and most of those seem to be chinese parts with no docs in English? Dunno.spostma mentioned fully-assembled SBCs. Doesn't look like what you're looking for. Besides, they would support PCIe host but not peripheral, AFAIK. The SOCs on those boards are very far from microcontrollers. They are SOCs, that usually require signing with your blood (and promise of 100s of thousands of parts a year) for the vendor to give you access to documentation and SDKs, if you ever wanted to develop your own boards with them.Of course, one option you have it to use a soft core on a mid-range FPGA. Many mid-range FPGAs support PCIe and have ample resources for embedding a decent soft core at a reasonable price. ($20-$40?)In any case, define "cheap"?Unless you make 100k+ products a year, nothing giving you PCIe support will be "cheap". But give us a price range.

author: tmadness
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: July 27, 2021, 08:35:25 pm
content: There are a few FPGAs with PCIe. You can add a "realtime" softcore. now the fpga might meet your cost requrements but cheap has a lot of adjacent meaning. Consider that no PCIe development is cheap, it is a protocol designed to push humongous amounts of data between chips that are quite complex. good luck implementing the software layer on bare metal.

author: capt bullshot
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 27, 2021, 08:43:16 pm
content: https://www.ti.com/product/AM2432

author: SiliconWizard
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 27, 2021, 09:20:00 pm
content: Quote from: capt bullshot on July 27, 2021, 08:43:16 pmI've never worked with Cortex-R "MCUs". But yeah, looks like you found a fit here.Unfortunately, what about availability? You can only buy 10 on TI's site, and I couldn't find them anywhere else (Digikey, Mouser, Arrow...?)

author: frogblender
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: July 28, 2021, 04:05:36 am
content: Quote from: SiliconWizard on July 27, 2021, 09:20:00 pmIt looks like those TI parts are brand new, and still in "Preview" mode.

author: ebclr
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 30, 2021, 06:51:00 am
content: Buy directly from TI it's very easy

author: brucehoult
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 30, 2021, 11:03:49 am
content: Quote from: frogblender on July 27, 2021, 06:54:10 pmYou're giving nowhere NEAR enough information.- what do you call cheap? $1? $10? $100?- how much ram? 16k? 2 MB? 1 GB?- how fast should it be? MIPS? Dhrystone? Coremark?

author: Pineapple Dan
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: July 31, 2021, 01:01:01 am
content: Microchip might have something coming up but you will be waiting a whileJust spotted this todayhttps://ie.indeed.com/viewjob?jk=3e58a7e03e9b465d&q=embedded&l=Cork&tk=1fbse0cm9u9jm802&from=ja&alid=5cb8c1c64d49583814144495&utm_campaign=job_alerts&utm_medium=email&utm_source=jobseeker_emails&rgtk=1fbse0cm9u9jm802

author: martinribelotta
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: July 31, 2021, 02:09:18 am
content: An interesting option is LS1021https://www.nxp.com/products/processors-and-microcontrollers/arm-processors/layerscape-processors/layerscape-1012a-low-power-processor:LS1012AFrom NXP...Is not a MCU but an MPU, however, you can program it in bare metal...

author: jenniferkim
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: July 31, 2021, 05:24:44 pm
content: Go for Raspberry Pi 4 or Pi0 both have PCIe port. I once designed aprototypeusing Pi4.

author: NiHaoMike
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 31, 2021, 09:30:44 pm
content: Pretty much only a FPGA or ASIC will be able to make use of the full PCIe bandwidth. If the bandwidth needed is relatively small, maybe use some off the shelf ASIC to bridge a more common microcontroller to PCIe?