Implementation of PCIe Protocol Functionality

Abstract

The SOC debugging process presents a wide range of difficulties. Finding basic design errors, subtle signal integrity issues, and system-level architecture faults are among the difficulties. It is crucial to identify all design flaws and promptly fix them, although it might be challenging. The most significant component of the design is verification. Integral circuit (IC) verification via conventional directed testing has become a tedious and time-consuming operation due to the rising design complexity and concurrency of ICs. In most cases, pre-silicon validation is carried out at the chip, multi-chip, or system level. Pre-silicon validation's goal is to confirm the design's accuracy and sufficiency. This approach typically requires modelling the complete system, where the model of the design under test may be RTL, and other components of the system may be behavioural or bus functional models. The goal is to subject the DUT (design under test) to real-world-like input stimuli. An essential part of the PCIe protocol that controls connection construction, link training, and fault recovery procedures is the Link Training and Status State Machine (LTSSM). This study gives a thorough introduction to the LTSSM, covering all of its several states, transitions, substates, and related packet formats. Project also includes factors involved in creating and testing LTSSM including the implementation of LTSSM in recent PCIe devices. Finally, the report proposes future research directions for enhancing the performance and reliability of LTSSM in emerging PCIe applications.