
Chapter 3: Hardware Description
R
Add-in Card DC Power Input (PCI Express Operation)
For PCI Express applications, the ML555 board has +3.3V and +12V power available from
the system unit power supply. The ML555 board does not use the 3.3V AUX power rail.
The PCI Express Card Electromechanical Specification places restrictions on the amount of
power an add-in card can draw from the system unit power supply. The PCI Express
add-in card power consumption limits are shown in
Table 3-33 .Single-lane PCI Express applications require the add-in card to power up in the 10W
mode. After the host processor completes configuration, the slot can utilize the full 25W
power allocation. The ML555 board can only plug into a x1 lane PCI Express connector
using an adapter board to convert the eight-lane ML555 PCI Express interface to a single-
lane form factor.
The ML555 board plugs into a x8 lane PCI Express slot in a server application with a 25W
power restriction from the system unit. The add-in card slot can be wired for either x4 or x8
lanes, depending on the server. The 75W add-in card slot is primarily for 16-lane PCI
Express applications. The ML555 board can plug into a 16-lane add-in card slot providing
a maximum application link capability of 8 lanes.
Table 3-33:
Add-in Card Power Rail Capacities for PCI Express Operation
Power Rail
Standard Height PCI
Express Card Lanes
+3.3V
+3.3V AUX
+12V
10 Watt Slot
x1
3.0A (max)
375 mA (max)
0.5A (max)
25 Watt Slot
x1, x4, or x8 lanes
(server applications)
3.0A (max)
375 mA (max)
2.1A (max)
75 Watt Slot
x16 lanes (supported by the
ML555 board)
3.0A (max)
375 mA (max)
5.5A (max)
For PCI Express applications, the ML555 board uses the +12V power rail as the input
power to a +12V to +5V DC-to-DC converter. The output of this DC-to-DC converter then
provides the input voltage to most of the voltage regulators on the board. The GTP
transceiver analog supplies and V CCINT are supplied by the 3.3V input from the system
board. For PCI and PCI-X applications, the ML555 board uses the +5V power rail as the
input to all voltage regulators on the board.
The ML555 interface for PCI Express designs supports x1, x4, and x8 lane configurations. A
1 lane to 16 lane converter board for PCI Express designs is required to plug an ML555
board into the x1 slots for PCI Express operation. These interface connectors are available
from Catalyst Enterprises.
ML555 Board DC Power Regulators
The ML555 board contains oncard voltage regulators that provide power for the Virtex-5
FPGA and onboard peripherals (see Table 3-34 ).
80
Virtex-5 FPGA ML555 Development Kit
UG201 (v1.4) March 10, 2008