RapidIO: The Next Generation Communication Fabric For Embedded Application

15.3. MULTI PROTOCOL SUPPORT FOR THE EMBEDDED ENVIRONMENT

The enablement of any interconnect ecosystem in an embedded environment begins with the migration of legacy technology. For this reason the adoption of an open interconnect, such as RapidIO, into a system does not preclude the existence of other proprietary or other open standard interconnects.

FPGA vendors realize that systems will primarily be a mix of technology. Since programmable logic offers a variety of I/O support on the same device this allows heterogeneous systems to exist while enabling the adoption of new technologies. This is one reason that FPGAs today can support multiple differential, single-ended and serial-based standards on the same device.

One benefit to the RapidIO protocol is that it is defined to use industry standard I/O technology that is already supported on existing FPGAs. RapidIO defines an 8- or 16-bit LVDS interface as well as a XAUI-based serial implementation of one lane or four lanes running from 1.25 to 3.125 Gbps. This allows system designers to develop FPGA devices to support migration of their systems to RapidIO.

For example, with an FPGA, a system designer can build components that support a legacy protocol and RapidIO on the same chip without waiting for an application-specific standard product (ASSP) or building an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC). In addition to supporting legacy protocols, system designers can also build bridge components that go from the RapidIO parallel ...