PCIe Connectivity

PCIe Non-Transparent Bridging (NTB)

NTB stands for Non-Transparent Bridge. Unlike in a PCIe (transparent) Bridge where the RC “sees” all the PCIe busses all the way to all the Endpoints, an NTB forwards the PCIe traffic between the separate PCIe busses like a bridge. Each RC sees the NTB as an Endpoint device but does not see the other RC and devices on the other side. Means, everything behind the NTB is not directly visible to the particular RC, thus “Non-Transparent”.

MLE's patented NTB technology is provided as a complete hardware/software subsystem comprising Linux drivers for NTB with a network device API plus readily instantiated PCIe Endpoint plus an on-chip AXI4-Stream switching fabric.  It has been optimized for embedded applications such as automotive ECUs which typically are limited to maximum of 4 PCIe lanes. By borrowing performance techniques from NVM Express such as ring-buffers and posted-writes we can deliver a high-bandwidth, low-latency yet resource-efficient implementation.

The MLE NTB supports the Xilinx PCIe hard-IP as well as soft-IP cores XpressRICH Controller IP for PCIe 3.1/3.0 (or newer) from PLDA or the Expresso Core from Northwest Logic / Rambus.