TCR180PEX Replacement for TCR170PEX and TCR511PEX

Meinberg has designed new PCI Express IRIG timecode receiver cards TCR180PEX and TCR180PEX-EL as a replacement for the older card models TCR170PEX and TCR511PEX.

While the TCR180PEX is a full-featured card like the TCR170PEX with an extra IRIG timecode output, the variant TCR180PEX-EL is an “entry level” version to replace the TCR511PEX. The TCR180PEX-EL provides even more features than the old TCR511PEX, but like the TCR511PEX, it doesn't have an extra timecode output, so its a little bit cheaper than the full-featured TCR180PEX.

The main reason for the new design was that both the old TCR511PEX and TCR170PEX are equipped with an old PLX PCI Express interface chip, and at some point in time Meinberg started to receive problem reports where an individual new computer model failed to boot if one of these cards was installed.

Maybe it would have been possible to find out what the exact reason for this problem is, but the question is whether it would have been possible at all to fix that, because the PCI interface logic is hardcoded in the PLX chip, and there are only very limited possibilities for changes in the interface behavior.

On the other hand, for some other Meinberg PCI Express cards there have been newer versions available for quite some time now which implement the PCI Express interface in a programmable logic chip, for example GPS180PEX, GLN180PEX, GNS181PEX, and PZF180PEX.

The GPS180PEX was the first card which used the new PCI interface design instead of a PLX chip. The card was already introduced back in 2011, and the other 180PEX cards adapted the PCI interface logic from this card. There are no known problems with the new PCI interface logic implemented in these cards.

The TCR170PEX card was an enhanced version of the TCR511PEX card. However, while the TCR511PEX card was a low-profile card which could be installed in servers with low-profile slot as well as in a full-size slot, the physical dimensions of the TCR170PEX card were such that it could only be installed in a full-size slot, but not in a low-profile slot.

The new TCR180PEX and TCR180PEX-EL cards combine the advantages of the other card types:

• They use the same, well-established PCI Express interface as the other 180PEX card models.
• They are low-profile card like the TCR511PEX.
• They support the same timecode formats as the TCR511PEX and the TCR170PEX, and even some more.
• Like the TCR170PEX, they have an enhanced oscillator on-board which is disciplined by the input signal, so they provide more stable time than the TCR511PEX in holdover mode.
• Like the TCR170PEX, they support a programmable time zone setting used to generate an output signal with an independent local time setting, including automatic switching to DST.
• Like the TCR170PEX, they provide 2 time capture inputs which can be used to accurately and precisely time stamp the slopes of 2 independent external hardware signals.
• Like the TCR170PEX, the TCR180PEX provides an IRIG output signal the format of which is independent from the format of the input signal (this feature is not available with the TCR180PEX-EL variant).
• According to Meinberg's driver and API policy the API calls used to access the card are fully compatible with the older card types, and with other Meinberg PCI card models.

So the new TCR180PEX and TCR180PEX-EL cards are real drop-in replacements for the TCR170PEX card and the TCR511PEX card, and if a current version of our driver software has already been used for the older cards then maybe not even an update of the driver software is required.

But of course it is recommended to to always use the current version of the driver software, which also supports all older PCI cards, but makes sure that all new features of any PCI card are supported.

More details on Meinberg's driver and API policy can be found on the KB page Meinberg Driver and API Concepts.

— Martin Burnicki 2016-10-13 09:55