[Asterisk-Users] PCI Problems

[Andrew Kohlsmith]

On Friday 26 May 2006 11:15, Rich Adamson wrote:
> Have you dug into the TDM400 far enough to know whether the common
> complaints are associated with a hardware design issue, TigerJet issue,
> or driver?  (eg, can any of the issues truly be addressed?)

My personal opinion is that the TJ320 (the PCI interface chip) is crap.  
Total, utter, complete, absolute crap.

It can work, yes, but it's first and foremost an economy PCI interface.  It's 
like the Plexor PCI interfaces that let you migrate your ISA design to PCI by 
plugging a PLX9052 between your ISA interface and the PCI interface.  It's a 
cheap way to get your design on to PCI, but it is very inflexible and 
VERY ... yuck.

My THEORY is that Mark started using it because it was easy to use, but when 
he went to full-scale production and started selling these things he very 
quickly discovered how different PCI bridges can be and how much trouble the 
TJ320 can cause for a rapidly-growing hardware company.

The Xilinx Spartan II is much better and far more flexible (but much more 
expensive, too).  I don't doubt he has either personally or had is hardware 
team research alternatives.  They're a very busy and very, VERY smart bunch 
of people.  Mark has brought PCI hardware to the public and supports it, 
which is something I have not done in any kind of volume.

I'd love to hear a detailed, technical response about what they've discovered 
is wrong, what they are going to do, and where their new products are headed, 
but I'd also like a 50 acre farm and some horses...  :-)

-A.