Understanding Performance of PCI Express Systems

PCI Express technology, which is a serialized point-to-point interconnect protocol, provides a high-bandwidth scalable solution for reliable data transport. Although PCI Express system transfer rates can seem extremely fast compared to those of its predecessor, PCI, users should understand the difference in raw bit rate movement versus data transfer performance.

This white paper explores factors of the PCI Express technology that can impact performance. It also provides guidance on how to estimate the performance of a system. The white paper concludes with performance measurements gathered from two systems using the Endpoint Block Plus wrapper with the Virtex-5 FPGA Integrated Endpoint Block for PCI Express designs.