PLDA Offers SATA Express Support in XpressRICH3-AXI PCIe IP

PLDA announced that its XpressRICH3-AXI PCIe 3.0 IP is compliant with the SATA Express standard.

This IP product leverages the PCIe interface while expanding it to deliver the benefits of SATA Express for design projects in the SSD space. In order to achieve compliance with the SATA Express specification, the company added features to its XpressRICH3-AXI soft IP that enabled compatibility with NVMe and AHCI. Integration of this capability delivers the two interfaces required for SATA Express implementation.

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The SATA Express standard was created to enable SATA and PCIe devices to be used in the same electro-mechanical environment, a necessary innovation because legacy SATA could not accommodate applications requiring above 6 GB/s. The new SATA Express standard addresses an existing, large installed base of legacy SATA devices, provides a path for the emerging market of new SATA devices including SATA-based SSDs, and delivers a solution for new classes of high performance devices, such as PCIe-based SSDs.

With this added support for the SATA Express standard, XpressRICH3-AXI IP enables SoC, ASIC and FPGA designers to incorporate connectivity to PCIe, SATA and SATA Express devices from a single connector, using a single interface controller IP product, reducing integration efforts.

 Note: IPM = IP-Maker SAS

Key features of SATA Express-compliant XpressRICH3-AXI IP include:

• Six BARs + EPROM supported

• Open Interrupt Interface

• AXI interfaces: Advanced AMBA AXI interconnect enables heterogeneous SoC interfacing. Allows AXI3 and AXI4 peripherals to coexist and communicate efficiently through the interconnect interface

• SRIOV: In a virtualized environment this feature allows functions of an endpoint to be easily and safely shared among several VMs. Up to 64 virtual functions per physical functions are supported.

“PLDA has created a flexible and easy-to-integrate IP solution, designed specifically for the needs of the SSD market,” said Stephane Hauradou, CTO, PLDA. “PLDA’s XpressRICH3-AXI IP will allow designers to more easily and more cost-effectively provide a connection to PCIe in a SATA Express device, increasing time-to-market and helping to drive the SSD industry forward.“