PLXMon 2000 User’s Manual v3.1
© PLX Technology, Inc. All rights reserved. 1-1
1. Introduction
The PLXMon 2000 is a powerful Windows-based GUI debug utility that allows easy configuration,
viewing, and modification of various registers on PLX’s PCI devices. It also allows the user to
perform interactive block-mode, scatter-gather, and shuttle mode DMA operations. PLXMon 2000
incorporates a built-in downloader application for downloading application specific code to your
target hardware and supports both FLASH and EEPROM programming. PLXMon 2000 works
with the Windows 98, Win 2000, and Windows NT 4.0 operating systems. It is designed to
operate with PLX’s Reference Design Boards and customer specific hardware that incorporates
either the IOP 480, PCI 9030, PCI 9054, or PCI 9080 devices. It includes an EEPROM Edit Utility
to allow programming of blank EEPROMs.
The dialog box windows contain detailed information about each register and if appropriate about
the individual bits within. Combining this information with the programming algorithms included for
accessing the various IOP components and the ability to communicate over both PCI bus and
Serial port, PLXMon 2000 provides the tools needed to access all PLX RDKs and your prototype
or production board, properly.
PLXMon 2000 is automatically installed on your system when you install Host SDK v3.1. It is
compatible with PLX’s IOP 480, PCI 9030, PCI 9054 and PCI 9080 devices.
1.1 About This Manual
This manual is divided into seven chapters. Chapter 1 is the Introduction; Chapter 2 shows you
how to set up PLXMon 2000 quickly, and how some of the more common functions are used.
Chapter 3 gives a self-guided tour of PLXMon 2000. In this area every feature found in PLXMon
2000 is outlined. Chapters 4, 5, 6, and 7 describe the PLXMon 2000 GUI screens for the IOP
480, PCI 9054, PCI 9080, and PCI 9030 devices, respectively. Appendix A is the troubleshooting
section and Appendix B is the glossary of terms.
1.2 Conventions And Support
References to Windows NT assume Windows NT 4.0 or higher and will be shown as WinNT.
Similarly, references to Windows98 or Windows2000 will be shown as Win98 or Win2000.
The PCI Host SDK contains software for a Windows host to access the PLX Chip across the PCI
bus. The PCI Pro SDK also contains software for a local CPU, or IOP (I/O Processor) to access
the chip via the local bus on a peripheral card. For further details see the documentation for the
Pro SDK.
All references to IOP (I/O Processor) throughout this manual refer to the embedded hardware
and all references to IOP software refer to the embedded software.
• All values used in the manual are hexadecimal numbers, with the exception for memory sizes
(used in Local Configuration Register screen). The prefix ‘0x’ has been omitted from all
hexadecimal numbers and is not required when entering values for PLXMon 2000 fields.
It is important to note that PLXMon 2000 can only operate with a PLX device. This version has
been designed to work with the following PLX hardware platforms:
• IOP 480RDK
• PCI 9030RDK-LITE
• CompactPCI 9030RDK-LITE
• PCI 9054RDK-LITE
• PCI 9054RDK-860