LeCroy’s Protocol Test Card (PTC) for PCI Express® systems provides a means for developers and customers to exercise the platform BIOS to ensure that it properly detects and initializes PCI Express devices.

The LeCroy PTC has been selected by the PCISIG as an official test tool for PCI-Express 2.0 at PCI-SIG Workshops.

This document provides the necessary information for setting up the PTC in Topology Mode and running the BIOS Platform tests.

These tests utilize a standard set of PCI Express BIOS tests which is published and maintained by the PCI-SIG® and available to all PCI-SIG members. The test package includes the following:

  • PCI Express Platform BIOS Test Consideration
  • PCI Express Platform BIOS Test Procedure Document
  • PCI Express Platform BIOS Test Software (current version)

These items can be downloaded from the PCISIG website by following the directions below.

Downloading BIOS Test Software from PCI-SIG Website

  1. . Go to www.pcisig.com and click on the Members Log In link.
  2. Log in to your member account.
  3. In the “Members Only Downloads” section, click on the link to PCI Express Specifications.
  4. Under “Information about PCI Express”, click on PCI Express Compliance Testing.
  5. Under the “Compliance Testing” section, click on Platform BIOS Testing.
  6. Click on the link called download the PCI Express BIOS tests.
  7. From the table of Quick Links, select the one called PCIe 2.0.
  8. Click on the link PCI Express Platform BIOS Test Software v0.90.
  9. On the file download screen that appears, select Save. A screen will appear to allow you to select a location on your CPU to save the installation file.
  10. The installation file that is downloaded will be called “PCIEPT.msi”. Locate this file (where you saved it on your disk) and double-click the file to start installation of the software.
  11. Follow the installation wizard to install the software. At one point during the installation, the software requests a folder location where the software should be installed. The default is “C:\Program Files\PCIEPT\”. You can accept this default location.
  12. When the installation is complete, click the Finish button to exit the installer.

The PCI-SIG BIOS Test software is now installed on your system.

Installing LeCroy Software on Host PC and Configuring PCI-SIG BIOS Test Software

  1. If you have not already done so, install the software that came with your LeCroy Protocol Test Card. If the software has already been installed, there will be a folder named “PTC” in the directory C:\Program Files\LeCroy.
  2. Navigate to the folder C:\Program Files\LeCroy\PTC\PCIEPT and highlight the file LeCroyPCIEPTInterface.dll. Right-click on this file and select Copy.
  3. Navigate to the folder C:\Program Files\PCIEPT, open the folder called “ini”, then right-click and select Paste to place a copy of the “LeCroyPCIEPTInterface.dll” into this folder.
  4. Inside the “ini” folder, there will be another file called “pcieptapp.ini”. Double-click on this file and it will open within the Notepad application as shown below.
  5. In the second line of this file, change the line that says “DLLName = XXXXXXXX” to read “DLLName = LeCroyPCIEPTInterface.dll”. Be sure to spell the filename exactly as shown.
  6. From the File menu, select Save. Close the Notepad application by clicking on the [X] box in the upper right corner.

Setting Up the Protocol Test Card

  1. Configure the PTC Card for the appropriate topology mode (dip switch 2 in the up position, and dip switch 3 in the down position for Gen1 and in the up position for Gen2).
  2. Place the PTC Card in the Root Complex being tested.
  3. Connect the USB Cable between the PTC card and the host application PC.
  4. Power on the PTC card.
    NOTE: DO NOT yet power on the Root Complex until you are directed to do so later in the process.

Running the BIOS Tests

Launch the PCIEPT application from the Start Menu by selecting All Programs, then PCIe Platform Firmware Test Tool, then PCIEPT_APP.exe.

From the first pop-up window, select Base Test Cases.

From the second pop-up window, select Run All Tests.

When you click the OK button the BIOS testing will begin.

For each test that is run, follow the directions that appear within each pop-up window, as shown in the following example:

When a test begins to run, but before information is available, you will see a blank black box as follows:

When a test is complete, the pass or fail status will appear in a status window, similar to that shown below:

Continue with each test, following instructions as they appear on the screen, until the test suite is complete.