Tips to Achieve PCIe - Agilent Technologies
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1. adaptor card will resolve issues There may be some cases where the computer BIOS is not capable of enumerating a full chassis In those cases it may be required to use a different PC controller For additional information see www agilent com find M9018A www agilent com find AXle chassis 11 The Modular Tangram The four sided geometric symbol that appears in this document is called a tangram The goal of this seven piece puzzle is to create identifiable shapes from simple to complex As with a tangram the possibilities may seem infinite as you begin to create a new test system With a set of clearly defined elements hardware software Agilent can help you create the system you need from simple to complex Challenge the Boundaries of Test Agilent Modular Solutions PALE www pxisa org AXle www axiestandard org Agilent Solutions Partners wwwwagilent com find solutionspartners 42 bey Agilent Email Updates www agilent com find emailupdates PICMG and the PICMG logo CompactPCI and the CompactPCI logo AdvancedTCA and the AdvancedTCA logo are US registered trademarks of the PCI Industrial Computers Manufacturers Group PCle and PCI EXPRESS are registered trademarks and or service marks of PCI SIG Microsoft Windows Visual Studio Visual C Visual C and Visual Basic are either registered trademark or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and or other countries www ag2. provided by an independent 3rd party is useful to check the suitability of the BIOS to support enu merating modular chassis The tool is known as System Information Viewer SIV and is provided by Ray Hinchliffe see http rh software com Here are the steps for BIOS capability inspection using the SIV tool use SIV tool ver sion 4 28 and later On the network go to the site http rh software com e For Windows XP and later download the siv zip file and then unzip into a directory of your choice e Run SIV32X exe or SIV64X exe depending on your OS e In the main window that appears right click on the PCI Bus and select ACPI busses e You will see a window that appears as shown below The key attribute to look for is the Free column These are the free PCI bus numbers available for enumeration For example in Figure 7 we see 216 free buses are available e Compare the number of free bus endpoints available to table 1 If the number of busses is greater than listed the BIOS should be capable of enumerating the chassis It is always best to have a large number of extra buses to allow for expansion Table 1 Required number of buses single chassis M9018A 30 M9502A 15 M9505A 15 Keep in mind if you are attempting to use multiple chassis you need to increase the number of buses accordingly In addition if you use other components such as a PCle RAID expansion chassis the required number of resources will incr
3. Tips to Achieve PCle Connectivity with your Agilent AXle or PXle Chassis Achieve PCle Connectivity Agilent s AXle and PXle chassis use PCle as their primary communications link Using the l PCle bus has many advantages such as avail Challenge the Boundaries of Test ability of standard hardware signaling methods Agilent Modular Solutions and debug tools The focus of this technical note is to provide a guide to address PCI PCle communications issues if they occur while using the Agilent AXle or PXle chassis products with external PC controllers Anticipate __Accelerate Achieve are Agilent Technologies OVERVIEW Contents Overview Introduction Understanding debug tools and general trouble shooting flow Overview of debug process Tip 1 Verify connections are fully seated Tip 2 Understand and adhere to proper power sequencing Tip 3 Verify PCle bus connectivity via LED indicators Tip 4 Understand and correct WDM error codes Tip 5 Review and reset PCle fabrics if necessary PXle M9018A only Tip 6 Understand and verify available PCI bus endpoints Tip 7 Upgrade the PCle adapter non laptop controller applications Tip 8 Select different controller PC slot for plug in adaptor Tip 9 Selectively remove modules Summary 10 10 Introduction Agilent s AXle and PXle chassis use PCle as their primary communications link Using the PCle bus has many advantages such as availab
4. cable connectors to verify they are fully seated Also check the adaptor card located in the PC controller to verify it is seated M9021A power slide Figure 4 Backplane switch M9021A power slide switch must be set correctly M9018A only 3 x i P 5 t7 e 2h gi F A BB Fo or H 3 F Sez PCle indicator LED s eae buna E abating pi UNI z corte 203 Ra j 5 sriain alae ai ATE roo Bras i Oars iy J TE N e qetrre gt 36 a8 oo ge m j i gt ee Mit r Iaa D011 119 Figure 5 AXle chassis LED s on M9505A ESM indicate PCle bus connectivity OVERVIEW OF DEBUG PROCESS Tip 4 Understanding and correcting WDM error codes A yellow icon next to the PXI device as shown in WDM Figure 1b may result from either a missing or corrupt instrument driver or limited PCI resources Inspecting the error code will give additional information on the root cause Double click on the device showing the error and view the Device status window Figure 6 There are many device status codes but the most common codes associ ated with chassis communications are 12 28 and 31 Codes 28 and 31 e Code 28 The drivers for this device are not installed e Code 31 This device is not working properly because Windows cannot load the drivers required for this device These codes occur when the instrument drivers are not installed or when windows cannot find the device informa tion file
5. cting that the lane s receiver is enabled 99090 gt 00w CABLE LANE DETECT 3 r 1 oOo BACK P NE DETECT cook eees Lane number Figure 3b Side view of M9021A card showing additional PCle lane indicators yellow and power LED s blue OVERVIEW OF DEBUG PROCESS Tip 3 Verify PCle bus connectivity via LED indica tors continued Verifying the M9021A switches and LED s First verifythe M9021A switches S301 amp S201 areset correctly located on the top side of the M9021A PCA They must be set to the right for proper operation in slot 1 of the M9018A e Next plug the M9021A card into the chassis connect the PCle cables and power up the system Check the front panel LED s first The LED s will be illuminated depending on your configuration e PCle x1 and x4 lane configurations will illuminate the x4 Cable and Chassis LED s e PCle x8 configurations will illuminate both the x4 and x8 Cable and Chassis LED s If the LED s are not lit re check the cabling and inspect the PCA located LED s as described below e Inspect the blue LED s DS301 and DS501 They must be lit indicating power is applied to M9021A If the blue LED s are not lit set power switch as shown in Figure 4 AXle chassis interconnect Check that the PCle Indicator LED s are illuminated on the ESM PCA AXle M9505A system module Figure 5 These LEDs indicate the connected PCle lanes IF the LED s are not illuminated check PCle
6. ease as well If the available buses are a limiting factor check with your controller supplier to see if there are any BIOS updates In some cases PC suppliers have increased the number of available PCI bus numbers and provided updates via updated BIOS installation It may be helpful to check the Agilent FTP site ftp ftp agilent com mpusup BIOS for BIOS updates If the number of free endpoints is a limiting factor and there are no BIOS updates it will be necessary to use a different controller with your chassis See document num ber 5990 7632EN Tested Computer List Technical Note available at www agilent com If the available buses are not a limiting factor the next likely cause is related to the signal characteristics of the PCle Express bus over a cable The next few steps will help identify issues with PCle signals over the cables BA ACPI Buses lt SIVEAX System Information Viewer V425 M3036A02AJL qqMPOCIass PCI Root Bus Physical Device Tota Bus Range Free Bus Range 0 00 0 Device 00000078 256 0 gt 255 216 J gt 2h Overal z6 0 gt 35 216 ACPI MCFG 60 MMIO PCIEXBAR f Bus Rawe 0000 0000000 0 0 gt 35 PCI Root Bus Lage Item Oesciption CK i Copy i Windows i Machine i PNP Man i PNP Dev ix Network l PCle Lanes TRA SPO i PO Bus I ACPI Dev Item Type ItemRanpe _GRA _MIN _MAX SIV64X ACPI PCI Buses on M9036A02A4 Windows 7 64 Embedded V6 01 Build 7601 Service Pack 1 Max Pa
7. her tools by 3rd party software providers also can give independent reports on PCI resources which are helpful and will be referenced in this document Issues with PCI PCle connectivity usually fall into a few categories incorrect or missing driver limited available PCI resources or signal equalization and clock jitter when driving cables Below is a summary of debugging process for connectivity issues Slight variations will occur depending if you are working with AXle or PXle although basic flow is similar Overview of debug process e Tip 1 Verify the connectors and modules are fully seated e Tip 2 Understand and adhere to proper chassis control ler power sequencing e Tip 3 Verify PCle bus connectivity via LED indicators e Tip 4 Understand and correct WDM error codes e Tip 5 Review and reset PCle fabrics if necessary PXle M9018A only e Tip 6 Understand and verify sufficient number of free PCI bus numbers e Tip 7 Upgrade the PCle adaptor card if necessary e Tip 8 Select a different controller PCle slot for plug in adaptor e Tip 9 Selectively remove modules Tip 1 Verify the connectors and modules are fully seated The PCle cable connectors and module mechanics are robust and well designed but it is surprisingly common for them to not be fully engaged In addition if using a Laptop controller the ExpressCard can easily become disengaged from the controller with a minor bump Pay particular attentio
8. ilent com www agilent com find pxi www agilent com find modular For more information on Agilent Technologies products applications or services please contact your local Agilent office The complete list is available at www agilent com find contactus Americas Canada 877 894 4414 Brazil 11 4197 3600 Mexico 01800 5064 800 United States 800 829 4444 Asia Pacific Australia China Hong Kong India Japan Korea Malaysia Singapore Taiwan Other AP Countries Europe amp Middle East Belgium Denmark Finland France Germany lreland Israel Italy Netherlands Spain Sweden United Kingdom 1 800 629 485 800 810 0189 800 938 693 1 800 112 929 0120 421 345 080 769 0800 1 800 888 848 1 800 375 8100 0800 047 866 65 375 8100 32 0 2 404 93 40 45 45 80 12 15 358 0 10 855 2100 0825 010 700 0 125 minute 49 0 7031 464 6333 1890 924 204 972 3 9288 504 544 39 02 92 60 8484 31 0 20 547 2111 34 91 631 3300 0200 88 22 55 44 0 118 927 6201 For other unlisted Countries www agilent com find contactus Revised January 6 2012 Product specifications and descriptions in this document subject to change without notice Agilent Technologies Inc 2012 Printed in USA July 7 2012 5991 0385EN whee Agilent Technologies
9. ility of standard hardware signaling methods and debug tools Despite these advantages you can run into cases where chassis and or instruments have issues establishing communicating to the PC controller The focus of this technical note is to provide a guide to address PCI PCle communications issues if they occur while using the Agilent AXle or PXle chassis products with external PC controllers PCI PCle connectivity is best indicated by viewing the Microsoft Windows Device Manager WDM as shown in Figure 1 When to use this guide This guide will be helpful if the chassis and some or all of the modules are not present and viewable in WDM Figure 1a In addition this guide will discuss situations where a yellow icon appears next to the PXI module s as it appears in WDM Figure 1b When not to use this guide This guide is not usually helpful if the all the modules are viewable in WDM Figure 1c The correct appearance in WDM indicates the instruments are present on the PCI bus and the instrument drivers are installed If this is the case verify the Agilent I O libraries are installed correctly www agilent com find iosuite and then verify instrument communications using the soft front panel provided with the instrument driver Consult the instrument specific documentation for further debug assistance if needed OVERVIEW e 2 ml ik a M90368 A0L b ADLINK GPIB Interface gt gl Computer gt a Disk dri
10. inf In this case verify the instrument driver has been correctly installed It may be necessary to uninstall and then re install the instrument driver followed by a PC re boot If you are uncertain if you have the correct instru ment driver see the Agilent website www agilent com find drivers and search for the appropriate IVI driver to be sure Code 12 e Code 12 This device cannot find enough free resources to use When using large AXle or PXle instrument chassis or con figurations that include an extension chassis such RAID memory there may not be enough PCI resources available for full chassis enumeration In most cases the limitation is the number of PCI bus numbers See Tip 6 Understand and verity available PCI bus numbers PCI Data Acquisition and Signal Processing Controller Properties General Driver Details Resources sii PCI Data cquisition and Signal Processing Controller i Device type Other devices Unknown PCI bus 17 device 11 function 0 Manufacturer Location Device status The drivers for this device are not installed Code 28 There is no driver selected for the device information set or element To find a driver for this device click Update Driver Figure 6 Windows Device Manager error code Tip 5 Review and reset PCle fabrics if necessary PXle M9018A only The M9018A chassis has adjustable PCle fabric configura tions that can be modified and optim
11. ized when using an Agilent embedded controller However when using an external PC controller only the factory default PCle 1x8 fabric is compatible with the M9021A interface cable card If a previous user had configured the M9018A to a mode other than the 1x8 factory default you should take steps to configure the chassis back to the default This is most easily done using the PCle Switch Fabric Configurator tool run on the previous embedded controller used with the chassis See the User anual Chapter 14 Changing and Restoring the PCle link Configuration for details If neces sary a manual fabric reset operation is also documented in the User manual OVERVIEW OF DEBUG PROCESS Tip 6 Understand and verify available PCI bus numbers Standard root complex implementations of PCI Express allow for 256 bus numbers However some consumer and business PC vendors limit the number of available bus numbers in the system BIOS to minimize implementation complexity Full sized AXle and PXle chassis especially the 18 slot M9018A chassis can consume bus numbers quite rapidly Keep in mind that each PXle AXle peripheral module slot in the modular chassis has a reserved bus number and several bus numbers to support the PCle switches on the backplane Depending on which particular chassis is used up to 30 bus numbers may be required per chassis does not include the bus numbers for PCle devices within the controller itself A software tool
12. m Module STATUS Figure 2 AXle status light on ESM module must be green before powering up controller If the power up sequence is not correct the chassis will not be recognized by PC Power down both the chassis and controller and then try again using correct sequence OVERVIEW OF DEBUG PROCESS Tip 3 Verify PCle bus connectivity via LED indicators LED s located on the M9021A cable card and the M9505A ESM module provides indication if the PCle bus is con nected properly as well as other interface card status information PXle chassis interconnect On the M9021A card there are three groups LED s to pay attention to The M9021A front panel has 4 LED s as shown in Figure 3a These give an easily viewable high level indication of PCle lane connection status depending on your particular configuration If needed additional information can be attained by looking at the LED s located on the top surface of the M9021A cable card PCA The Blue LED s DS301 and DS501 indicate power is applied to the M9021A card In addition there are two groups of 8 LED s giving greater insight to the individual lane connec tions to the backplane and cable 6 e Agilent M9021A PCle Cable Interface amp x4 Cable x8 Cable x4 Chassis x8 Chassis Figure 3a Front top of M9021A card PCle LED green indicators M9021A Cable Interface Module 08301 An ON LED indicates that the lane is active based on the card dete
13. n to the following e Be sure the PCle cable connectors and ExpressCard if used are fully engaged A click will be heard when they are seated properly Verify all AXle or PXle modules are fully seated The engagement of the ejection lever is not always a good indication of full engagement A better test is to verify the module faceplate screws can be tightened with little or no binding of the faceplate sheet metal Also be aware that some AXle or PXle modules may have vinyl screw caps on the faceplate screws Make sure these are removed before installing the module Tip 2 Understand and adhere to proper power sequencing The PCI endpoints including the chassis and modules must be present on the PCI bus when the PC controller boots in order for them to be identified As a result the proper controller chassis start up sequence must be used The proper power sequence is 1 power up the chassis and then 2 power up the PC controller Care must be taken to provide enough time for chassis to be ready The M9018A PXle chassis powers up quickly less than 1 second However the AXle chassis must be powered up for several seconds prior to powering the external controller For AXle chassis use the ESM status light as an indicator it must be green before powering up the external controller Figure 2 Also be aware that some AXle modules may require additional time to fully initialize and be present on the PCI bus M9505 00130 Syte
14. ns For example some older controllers may partition available PCI bus numbers differently depending on the port used For this reason it may be helpful to re locate the PCle adaptor card M9048A to a different PCle slot location Tip 9 Selectively remove modules There may be some cases where a defective module may prevent other modules from booting If the above tips fail to isolate the problem remove all the modules in the chas sis and attempt to reboot and verify connectivity to the chassis In the PXle M9018A chassis the chassis itself appears as a PCI node in the WDM For an AXle M502A or M9505A chassis after removing all of the modules in the chassis the only PCle based node that will appear is the LAN NIC controller This is best observed using the view by connection mode in WDM If the chassis PCI node M9018A or the LAN NIC node M9502A or M9505A appear in WDM after removing all of the modules selectively re install the modules to deter mine the offending one SUMMARY There may be cases where PXI and Axle chassis or instru ments are having issues establishing communicating with an external to the controller The focus of this technical note is to provide a guide to address basic PCle communi cations issues if they occur while using the Agilent PXle or AXI chassis products with external controllers In some cases the solution can be as simple as re seating a connector In other cases getting the appropriate PCle
15. pters gt C IDE ATA ATAPI controllers gt SD Monitors amp Network adapters D Processors gt ial Systern devices gt Universal Serial Bus controllers Figure 1b Windows Device Manager shows Figure 1c Windows Device Manager only some modules and or the modules appear with a yellow icon shows all modules and device instru ment drivers are installed correctly This guide is intended to supplement the AXle and PXle chassis start up and users guides Portions of this documents Technical Note available at www agilent com The pre tested controllers have been determined to have enough PCI bus resources to enumerate at least one full sized chassis In cases where a pre tested not available this guide will give you information that will help determine if your controller will work configuration document may refer to procedures described in the e M9018A startup and user guides controller is in your particular e P N M9018 90001 e P N M9018 90005 e M9502A 05A startup and user guides e P N M9502 90001 e P N M9502 90005 UNDERSTANDING DEBUG TOOLS AND GENERAL TROUBLESHOOTING The PCI PCle bus is a prevalent interface standard used world wide As such many tools and methods are avail able that can be used to inspect the status of the bus For example Microsoft Windows Device Manager WDM is a good tool to use when initially inspecting and understand ing the current state of the PCI bus Ot
16. s clock isolation which improves jitter performance across the cable In the event you have an older PCle adaptor card upgrade to the Agilent M9048A adaptor See www agilent com find m9048a for details PCle ExpressCard It is important to note that many ExpressCards are rated for Gen 1 rates only while some newer laptops may support PCle Gen 2 rates The latter case may present a problem if the ExpressCard itself only supports Gen 1 rates In cases where the Laptop PC supports PCle Gen 2 the BIOS will generally have an option that forces the ExpressCard slot to run at a Gen 1 data rate If your laptop supports PCle Gen 2 data rates check the BIOS settings and select the option to for the ExpressCard slot to negoti ate a Gen 1 data rate BOMPF iota Figure 8 M9048A PCle adaptor card Figure 9 M9045B ExpressCard OVERVIEW OF DEBUG PROCESS Tip 8 Select different controller PC slot for plug in adaptor PCI bus architectures vary depending on the controller The PCI and PCle bus can be partitioned into multiple sections intended for different application access Perhaps you have heard the term Northbridge and Southbridge ports on the PCle bus Historically highspeed memory and graphics PCI access was via the northbridge while lower speed peripheral access USB IDE was via the south bridge Depending on the controller differences may occur between these ports that can impact external PCle chassis communicatio
17. ves gt A Display adapters gt gm IDE ATAZATAPI controllers i Monitors gt a Network adapters Processors bg System devices Universal Serial Bus controllers Figure 1a Windows Device Manager does not show chassis or modules even after verifying chassis is properly cabled to controller First and foremost It is recommended usin that is pre tested by Agilent Technologies e See document 5990 7632EN Tested Computer List Computer M File Action View Help e9 200 mle a gy M90364 AJL gt amp ADLINK GPIB Interface 43 Agilent Technologies Modular Devices EE M1214 Switch Card 3 M91304 Switch Card othe M91834 gt M91864 M91874 oS M9210A Digitizer gt gt F Data Acquisition Devices gt Disk drives gt Gg IDE ATA ATAPI controllers ke Monitors gt amp Network adapters Qj PCI Data Acquisition and Signal Processing gt LB Processors gt q System devices he M9018A4 Chassis Se M91854 a Cornputer Wy Display adapters 4 gt Other devices b Universal Serial Bus controllers la i5 iG g a controller File Action View Help e 9 2 mlU mle a gy M9036A AJL b ADLINK GPIB Interface 4 ut Agilent Technologies Modular Devices Sf M90184 Chassis M91214 Switch Card amp M9130A Switch Card M91834 M91854 i M91864 So M9187A L ate M92104 Digitizer amp Computer gt PF Data Acquisition Devices gt eq Disk drives gt amp Display ada
18. yload ACP EGN _CRS 0SM 0 0 DSM PCIEXBAR OO00DED000000 Agilent M0364 _LEN ACPLHAL ACPI Evd ACPI Buses ACPI Ports Methods Figure 7 Screenshot showing SIV window OVERVIEW OF DEBUG PROCESS Tip 7 PCle adapter considerations The PCle bus runs at very high data rates and when con trolling an external chassis the PCle bus must be routed from the PC controller to the chassis using cables Access to the controller s internal PCle bus is achieved using adaptor hardware which takes the form of either a PCle plug in adaptor card Figure 8 or an ExpressCard adaptor Figure 9 Some PCle adaptors contain re driver hardware that is only capable to PCle Gen 1 data rates This presents a problem when a PCle Gen 2 capable PC is connecting to a Gen 2 capable chassis since the PCle bus will attempt to negotiate at Gen 2 rates both endpoints will advertise Gen 2 capability If the PCle cable adaptor is only designed for Gen 1 rates it may not be able to pass the Gen 2 data rates as needed and link training will fail For best performance use a PCle adaptor that is engi neered to support the required data rates including opti mized signal drive equalization and clock isolation Here are some attributes to look for depending on the adaptor style PCle adaptor plug in card The Agilent M9048A adaptor card has been engineered to provide superior transmission performance at Gen 2 rates It is tuned to drive PCle cables and provide
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