FPGA (field-programmable gate array) vendor Xilinx is shipping a development kit for 10Gbps Ethernet interfaces based on XAUI (pronounced “zowie”). The “Virtex-5 Solution for XAUI” kit includes an FPGA-powered PCIe card with Linux drivers, and targets communications, networking, storage, defense, and… computing devices.

(Click for larger view of the Xilinx Virtex-5 PCIe card)

XAUI is short for “attachment user interface,” preceded by the roman numeral 10. It is definied in IEEE 802.3ae (10Gb Ethernet) clauses 47 and 48. In its marketing literature, however, Xilinx has happily corrupted the acronym as “Xilinx attachment user interface.”

Xilinx says its XAUI kit includes:

• 8-lane PCI Express add-in card with a CX4 connector
• Virtex-5 FPGA with built-in blocks for PCI Express endpoint, Ethernet MACs & 3.75 Gbps RocketIO GTP transceivers
• LogiCORE IP products to develop a XAUI, XGMAC, 1-8-lane PCIe endpoint in the FPGA
• Reference designs and software
• Windows and Linux software drivers
• Technical documentation

Anil Telikepalli, a senior manager, stated, “Our complete XAUI solution enables system architects to rapidly implement XAUI interfaces and evaluate performance benefits in a low-cost desktop PC form factor.”

Telikepalli added, “The XAUI protocol continues to rapidly expand in new equipment and market segments, and our Virtex-5 LXT and SXT devices, with built-in serial transceivers and LogiCORE IP supporting XAUI protocol & XGMAC layers, are being deployed in an increasing number of existing and new applications.”

Availability

The Virtex-5 FPGA reference design for XAUI is available for immediate download here, Xilinx said.

 
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