RTL Entity Reference

This page documents the four top-level RTL entities in axi-pcie-core: AxiPcieCore (the abstract board-core role), AxiPcieDma (the DMA engine), AxiPipCore (PCIe Intercommunication Protocol), and AxiGpuAsyncCore (GPU-Direct async data path). Per-board concrete realisations of AxiPcieCore (e.g., XilinxKcu1500Core, XilinxAlveoU200Core) are listed in the supported-boards reference; internal surf primitives referenced below are documented in the surf library and are not expanded here.

AxiPcieCore

Purpose

AxiPcieCore is the abstract name for the per-board top-level integration entity — the single instantiation point for a given PCIe carrier board. Concrete realisations are XilinxKcu1500Core (hardware/XilinxKcu1500/rtl/XilinxKcu1500Core.vhd) and XilinxAlveoU200Core (hardware/XilinxAlveoU200/core/XilinxAlveoU200Core.vhd), among others. All <Board>Core entities share the same logical port surface — DMA AXI-Stream arrays, PIP AXI4 write masters, application AXI-Lite master pair, and board-specific I/O; only the board I/O section differs between boards. See Architecture for the structural overview and Board Support for the board layering rationale.

Generics

AxiPcieCore generics (representative — XilinxKcu1500Core)

Name	Type	Default	Description
TPD_G	time	1 ns	Propagation delay for simulation.
ROGUE_SIM_EN_G	boolean	false	When true, replaces all PCIe/DMA hardware with surf.RogueTcpStreamWrap / surf.RogueTcpMemoryWrap TCP-socket stubs, enabling software co-simulation without physical hardware.
ROGUE_SIM_PORT_NUM_G	natural range 1024 to 49151	8000	Base TCP port number used by the rogue simulation stubs.
ROGUE_SIM_CH_COUNT_G	natural range 1 to 256	256	Number of virtual DMA channels exposed in simulation.
BUILD_INFO_G	BuildInfoType	(required)	Firmware build information record (version, timestamp, git hash) inserted into AxiVersion registers.
DMA_AXIS_CONFIG_G	AxiStreamConfigType	(required)	AXI-Stream bus configuration for the application-facing DMA ports.
DMA_SIZE_G	positive range 1 to 8	1	Number of DMA lanes. Range 1–8 is bounded by the 10-port AXI crossbar in AxiPcieCrossbar (1 descriptor port + up to 8 DMA lanes + 1 user GP port = 10).
DMA_BURST_BYTES_G	positive range 256 to 4096	256	Maximum DMA burst size in bytes.
DRIVER_TYPE_ID_G	slv(31 downto 0)	x"00000000"	Driver-type identifier exposed in PcieAxiVersion registers.
DATAGPU_EN_G	boolean	false	Enables the GPU-Direct async data path (AxiGpuAsyncCore).

DMA_SIZE_G sets the width of the DMA stream arrays dmaObMasters, dmaObSlaves, dmaIbMasters, dmaIbSlaves at the top level. The maximum value of 8 is a hard constraint: the AxiPcieCrossbar wraps a pre-built Vivado AXI Interconnect DCP from shared/ip/AxiPcie{16,32,64}BCrossbarIpCore/ that supports at most 10 slave ports (1 descriptor + up to 8 DMA lanes + 1 user GP), leaving no room for additional lanes beyond 8.

The per-board AXI_PCIE_CONFIG_C constant — defined in hardware/<Board>/rtl/AxiPciePkg.vhd — configures the shared RTL’s AXI bus width (typically 256-bit data, 64-bit address, 4-bit ID, 8-bit length). The roadmap term “transceiverClass” maps to this constant paired with the per-board PCIe IP variant (Gen3x8 / Gen3x16 / Gen4x8).

Ports

AxiPcieCore ports (representative — XilinxKcu1500Core)

Name	Dir	Type	Description
Clock / Reset (outputs)
dmaClk	out	sl	250 MHz DMA system clock (sourced from PCIe PHY recovered reference).
dmaRst	out	sl	Synchronous reset on dmaClk domain.
dmaBuffGrpPause	out	slv(7 downto 0)	Per-group buffer-full pause signals from the DMA engine.
DMA Streams (Outbound — FPGA to Host)
dmaObMasters	out	AxiStreamMasterArray(DMA_SIZE_G-1 downto 0)	Outbound DMA stream masters (FPGA application to host).
dmaObSlaves	in	AxiStreamSlaveArray(DMA_SIZE_G-1 downto 0)	Outbound DMA stream flow-control slaves.
DMA Streams (Inbound — Host to FPGA)
dmaIbMasters	in	AxiStreamMasterArray(DMA_SIZE_G-1 downto 0)	Inbound DMA stream masters (host to FPGA application).
dmaIbSlaves	out	AxiStreamSlaveArray(DMA_SIZE_G-1 downto 0)	Inbound DMA stream flow-control slaves.
PIP AXI4 Interface (dmaClk domain)
pipIbMaster	out	AxiWriteMasterType	PIP inbound write master — peer FPGA write arriving over PCIe.
pipIbSlave	in	AxiWriteSlaveType	PIP inbound write slave (application accepts writes).
pipObMaster	in	AxiWriteMasterType	PIP outbound write master — local FPGA initiates write to peer.
pipObSlave	out	AxiWriteSlaveType	PIP outbound write flow-control slave.
User General Purpose AXI4 (dmaClk domain)
usrReadMaster	in	AxiReadMasterType	User GP AXI4 read master — optional application PCIe read path.
usrReadSlave	out	AxiReadSlaveType	User GP AXI4 read slave.
usrWriteMaster	in	AxiWriteMasterType	User GP AXI4 write master.
usrWriteSlave	out	AxiWriteSlaveType	User GP AXI4 write slave.
Application AXI-Lite (appClk domain)
appClk	in	sl	Application clock. May differ from dmaClk; decoupled via surf.AxiLiteAsync inside AxiPcieReg.
appRst	in	sl	Synchronous reset on appClk domain.
appReadMaster	out	AxiLiteReadMasterType	Application-region AXI-Lite read master (BAR0 offset 0x00100000–0x00FFFFFF).
appReadSlave	in	AxiLiteReadSlaveType	Application-region AXI-Lite read slave.
appWriteMaster	out	AxiLiteWriteMasterType	Application-region AXI-Lite write master.
appWriteSlave	in	AxiLiteWriteSlaveType	Application-region AXI-Lite write slave.
Board I/O (board-specific)
pciRstL	in	sl	PCIe fundamental reset (active-low).
pciRefClkP / pciRefClkN	in	sl	PCIe 100 MHz differential reference clock.
pciRxP / pciRxN	in	slv(N-1 downto 0)	PCIe serial receive lanes (N = 8 or 16 depending on board).
pciTxP / pciTxN	out	slv(N-1 downto 0)	PCIe serial transmit lanes.

AxiPcieDma

Purpose

AxiPcieDma is the board-agnostic AXI-Stream DMA engine at shared/rtl/AxiPcieDma.vhd. It wraps surf.AxiStreamDmaV2 (scatter- gather descriptor engine), an AXI4 crossbar (AxiPcieCrossbar), per-lane inbound and outbound AXI-Stream FIFOs, and surf.AxiStreamMonAxiL traffic monitors for both directions. See PCIe DMA Model for the full data-flow narrative.

Generics

AxiPcieDma generics

Name	Type	Default	Description
TPD_G	time	1 ns	Propagation delay for simulation.
ROGUE_SIM_EN_G	boolean	false	When true, replaces the PCIe crossbar and DMA core with surf.RogueTcpStreamWrap stubs for software co-simulation.
ROGUE_SIM_PORT_NUM_G	positive range 1024 to 49151	8000	Base TCP port for rogue simulation; per-lane offset is ROGUE_SIM_PORT_NUM_G + lane*512 + 2.
ROGUE_SIM_CH_COUNT_G	positive range 1 to 256	256	Virtual channel count per DMA lane in simulation.
SIMULATION_G	boolean	false	Enables simulation-mode timing relaxations in sub-components.
DMA_BURST_BYTES_G	positive range 256 to 4096	256	Maximum AXI4 burst size in bytes issued by the descriptor engine.
DMA_SIZE_G	positive range 1 to 8	1	Number of DMA lanes. See the constraint note below.
DMA_AXIS_CONFIG_G	AxiStreamConfigType	ssiAxiStreamConfig(16)	AXI-Stream configuration for the application-facing DMA ports.
INT_PIPE_STAGES_G	natural range 0 to 16	1	Internal pipeline stages in the IB/OB FIFOs.
PIPE_STAGES_G	natural range 0 to 16	1	Output pipeline stages in the IB/OB FIFOs.
DESC_SYNTH_MODE_G	string	"inferred"	Descriptor RAM synthesis mode passed to AxiStreamDmaV2.
DESC_MEMORY_TYPE_G	string	"block"	Descriptor RAM memory type ("block" or "distributed").
DESC_ARB_G	boolean	false	Descriptor arbitration policy; false = round-robin (default, preferred for timing).

DMA_SIZE_G sets the width of the DMA stream arrays exposed at the entity boundary. The maximum of 8 is imposed by AxiPcieCrossbar, which wraps a pre-built Vivado AXI Interconnect DCP (shared/ip/AxiPcie{16,32,64}BCrossbarIpCore/) with a fixed 10-slave-port topology: 1 descriptor + up to 8 DMA lanes + 1 user GP = 10. Instantiating more than 8 DMA lanes is not possible without a new DCP. The descriptor engine (surf.AxiStreamDmaV2) supports host addresses up to 40 bits wide; the crossbar uses 64-bit addresses internally (required for the GPU-Direct and PIP paths) with resizing at the crossbar boundary.

Ports

AxiPcieDma ports

Name	Dir	Type	Description
Clock / Reset
axiClk	in	sl	250 MHz DMA system clock.
axiRst	in	sl	Synchronous active-high reset.
PCIe AXI4 (axiClk domain)
axiReadMaster	out	AxiReadMasterType	AXI4 read master to PCIe PHY (DMA host read).
axiReadSlave	in	AxiReadSlaveType	AXI4 read slave from PCIe PHY.
axiWriteMaster	out	AxiWriteMasterType	AXI4 write master to PCIe PHY (DMA host write).
axiWriteSlave	in	AxiWriteSlaveType	AXI4 write slave from PCIe PHY.
PIP AXI4 (axiClk domain)
pipObMaster	in	AxiWriteMasterType	PIP outbound write master (peer FPGA write, routed through crossbar slot 0).
pipObSlave	out	AxiWriteSlaveType	PIP outbound write flow-control slave.
User GP AXI4 (axiClk domain)
usrReadMaster	in	AxiReadMasterType	User general-purpose AXI4 read master (crossbar slot DMA_SIZE_G+1).
usrReadSlave	out	AxiReadSlaveType	User GP read slave.
usrWriteMaster	in	AxiWriteMasterType	User GP AXI4 write master.
usrWriteSlave	out	AxiWriteSlaveType	User GP write slave.
AXI4-Lite Control (axiClk domain)
axilReadMasters	in	AxiLiteReadMasterArray(2 downto 0)	AXI-Lite read masters: [0] DMA descriptor engine, [1] IB monitor, [2] OB monitor.
axilReadSlaves	out	AxiLiteReadSlaveArray(2 downto 0)	AXI-Lite read slaves (same indexing).
axilWriteMasters	in	AxiLiteWriteMasterArray(2 downto 0)	AXI-Lite write masters.
axilWriteSlaves	out	AxiLiteWriteSlaveArray(2 downto 0)	AXI-Lite write slaves.
DMA Streams (axiClk domain)
dmaIrq	out	sl	Level-triggered DMA interrupt; the PCIe PHY asserts MSI on the rising edge.
dmaBuffGrpPause	out	slv(7 downto 0)	Per-group buffer-full pause from AxiStreamDmaV2.
dmaObMasters	out	AxiStreamMasterArray(DMA_SIZE_G-1 downto 0)	Outbound DMA stream masters (FPGA to host).
dmaObSlaves	in	AxiStreamSlaveArray(DMA_SIZE_G-1 downto 0)	Outbound DMA stream flow-control slaves.
dmaIbMasters	in	AxiStreamMasterArray(DMA_SIZE_G-1 downto 0)	Inbound DMA stream masters (host to FPGA).
dmaIbSlaves	out	AxiStreamSlaveArray(DMA_SIZE_G-1 downto 0)	Inbound DMA stream flow-control slaves.

AxiPipCore

Purpose

VHDL entity name: AxiPciePipCore (in file protocol/pip/rtl/AxiPciePipCore.vhd); the PyRogue class drops the Pcie infix to AxiPipCore.

AxiPciePipCore implements the PCIe Intercommunication Protocol (PIP), which allows one FPGA to write directly into a peer FPGA’s address space over PCIe without CPU involvement. The core packetises outbound AXI-Stream frames into 256-byte AXI4 write bursts via surf.AxiStreamPacketizer2 and reconstructs inbound AXI4 write bursts back into AXI-Stream via surf.AxiStreamDepacketizer2.

Generics

AxiPciePipCore generics

Name	Type	Default	Description
TPD_G	time	1 ns	Propagation delay for simulation.
NUM_AXIS_G	positive range 1 to 16	1	Number of independent AXI-Stream channels multiplexed over the single PIP AXI4 write path.
DMA_AXIS_CONFIG_G	AxiStreamConfigType	(required)	AXI-Stream configuration for the application-facing PIP stream ports; must match the board DMA_AXIS_CONFIG_G.

Ports

AxiPciePipCore ports

Name	Dir	Type	Description
AXI4-Lite Control (axilClk domain)
axilClk	in	sl	AXI-Lite clock.
axilRst	in	sl	AXI-Lite reset.
axilReadMaster	in	AxiLiteReadMasterType	AXI-Lite read master for PIP control/monitoring registers.
axilReadSlave	out	AxiLiteReadSlaveType	AXI-Lite read slave.
axilWriteMaster	in	AxiLiteWriteMasterType	AXI-Lite write master.
axilWriteSlave	out	AxiLiteWriteSlaveType	AXI-Lite write slave.
enableTx	out	slv(NUM_AXIS_G-1 downto 0)	Per-channel transmit enable, controlled via AXI-Lite registers.
AXI-Stream Interface (axisClk domain)
axisClk	in	sl	AXI-Stream clock.
axisRst	in	sl	AXI-Stream reset.
sAxisMasters	in	AxiStreamMasterArray(NUM_AXIS_G-1 downto 0)	Outbound stream masters (application writes to peer FPGA).
sAxisSlaves	out	AxiStreamSlaveArray(NUM_AXIS_G-1 downto 0)	Outbound stream flow-control slaves.
mAxisMasters	out	AxiStreamMasterArray(NUM_AXIS_G-1 downto 0)	Inbound stream masters (data received from peer FPGA).
mAxisSlaves	in	AxiStreamSlaveArray(NUM_AXIS_G-1 downto 0)	Inbound stream flow-control slaves.
AXI4 PCIe Interface (axiClk domain)
axiClk	in	sl	AXI4 clock (typically same as dmaClk).
axiRst	in	sl	AXI4 reset.
axiReady	out	sl	PIP transmit-path ready status.
sAxiWriteMaster	in	AxiWriteMasterType	Inbound AXI4 write master — peer FPGA write arriving from PCIe.
sAxiWriteSlave	out	AxiWriteSlaveType	Inbound write flow-control slave.
mAxiWriteMaster	out	AxiWriteMasterType	Outbound AXI4 write master — local FPGA write to peer over PCIe.
mAxiWriteSlave	in	AxiWriteSlaveType	Outbound write flow-control slave.

AxiGpuAsyncCore

Purpose

VHDL entity name: AxiPcieGpuAsyncCore (in file protocol/gpuAsync/rtl/AxiPcieGpuAsyncCore.vhd); the PyRogue class drops the Pcie infix to AxiGpuAsyncCore.

AxiPcieGpuAsyncCore implements a GPU-Direct async data path that bypasses the CPU for FPGA-to-GPU memory transfers. It wraps surf.AxiStreamDmaV2Write and surf.AxiStreamDmaV2Read engines, dynamically demultiplexing inbound streams between the GPU path and the standard CPU DMA path. An AXI-Lite register block controls path selection and provides frame-level traffic monitoring.

Generics

AxiPcieGpuAsyncCore generics

Name	Type	Default	Description
TPD_G	time	1 ns	Propagation delay for simulation.
DEFAULT_DEMUX_SEL_G	sl	'1'	Power-on demux routing: '1' = GPU path, '0' = CPU path.
BURST_BYTES_G	integer range 1 to 4096	4096	AXI4 burst size (bytes) for DMA write and read engines.
DMA_AXIS_CONFIG_G	AxiStreamConfigType	(required)	AXI-Stream configuration for the application-facing stream ports.

Ports

AxiPcieGpuAsyncCore ports

Name	Dir	Type	Description
AXI4-Lite Control (axilClk domain)
axilClk	in	sl	AXI-Lite clock.
axilRst	in	sl	AXI-Lite reset.
axilReadMaster	in	AxiLiteReadMasterType	AXI-Lite read master for GPU async control registers.
axilReadSlave	out	AxiLiteReadSlaveType	AXI-Lite read slave.
axilWriteMaster	in	AxiLiteWriteMasterType	AXI-Lite write master.
axilWriteSlave	out	AxiLiteWriteSlaveType	AXI-Lite write slave.
AXI-Stream Interface (axisClk domain)
axisClk	in	sl	AXI-Stream clock.
axisRst	in	sl	AXI-Stream reset.
sAxisMaster	in	AxiStreamMasterType	Inbound stream from application (GPU write source).
sAxisSlave	out	AxiStreamSlaveType	Inbound stream flow-control slave.
mAxisMaster	out	AxiStreamMasterType	Outbound stream to application (GPU read destination).
mAxisSlave	in	AxiStreamSlaveType	Outbound stream flow-control slave.
bypassMaster	out	AxiStreamMasterType	CPU bypass stream — frames routed to CPU DMA path when demux selects '0'.
bypassSlave	in	AxiStreamSlaveType	Bypass stream flow-control slave.
AXI4 PCIe Interface (axiClk domain)
axiClk	in	sl	AXI4 clock (typically same as dmaClk).
axiRst	in	sl	AXI4 reset.
axiWriteMaster	out	AxiWriteMasterType	AXI4 write master to PCIe host memory (GPU write path).
axiWriteSlave	in	AxiWriteSlaveType	AXI4 write slave.
axiReadMaster	out	AxiReadMasterType	AXI4 read master from PCIe host memory (GPU read path).
axiReadSlave	in	AxiReadSlaveType	AXI4 read slave.