Need help designing PCI I/O board 1

[gjehrenstein]

I need to design an I/O board to plug into a PCI slot of a mobo. It needs 8 serial ports, 24 lines In (switches, pushbuttons, etc), 24 line out (lamps, etc), Battery-Backed RAM, Watchdog Timer, and Dallas Key. I can handle all the I/O, I am at a loss for the PCI interface part of it. I have found some PCI Bridge ICs (ASICs, FPGAs, etc.) but they are for high data-rate video boards, Frame Relay, servers, etc. I need something simple, can be slow, cheap and easy. Any suggestions? Thanks, Gabe.
PS: I'm downloading the "PCI Bus Demystified" book, but thought I'de put the questions out there for more help. Thanks again.

 

[sktrsl]

hi gjehrenstein,
i interfaced the parallel port (LPT1) and the ISA bus for some simple job (e.g. computerized motor speed control, telephone billing system etc.). i did these by means of 74LSxxx series ic's which are very cheap indeed.
recentlly i get the pci slot config and become interested to interface this bus to do some similar job. in this case i also trying to use the similar ic's. but the timing consideration of pci bus makes the design cumbersome. i'll contact you as soon as any solution i can achive positively. if you get any thing please inform me. may be we can help each other.
and about that book "PCI Bus Demystified", from where did you downloaded that. i tried to search and download that in e-book (i.e. pdf) but can't find it. the website pcibusdemystified.com is not opening. if you get any info please let me know.
with all good wishes
sktrsl.

 

[cbarn24050]

Hi, there are several chips that do this for you. Search for pci buss controllers.

 

[IRstuff]

Both links for PDF downloads appear to be dead at the moment:

http://www.pcibusdemystified.com

http://www.ebooktech.com/

TTFN

 

[gjehrenstein]

Thanks for the reply. I have made much progress on this project. First, the book, I could not download it either. Oh well.

The method I found to interface the PCI bus is using one of the chips from PLX Technology. They have good stuff on the web, will sell the parts onesy-twosy, to anyone (no pretensions with them) through their Yahoo Store. All the documentation is available to download from their website, or you can buy a development kit which includes a sample board (reference design) with the part on it, plus all the support chips needed to make a light flash, etc. Also CDs with all the documentation, SW, CAD files, etc, plus one more part to put on your own board.

I used the PCI9030, as it seemed the most appropriate for me. It will, among other things, give you an ISA interface from the PCI bus. It does all the handshaking, device ID, address mapping, etc. All the stuff that makes the PCI bus very flexible / hard to design for.

I am very tickled with how this turned out. I wish you well in your endevor. Thanks again for the wise words.