Peer to Peer Transfer Overflows when Using an MXI Thunderbolt Connexion

Updated Nov 18, 2021

Issue Details

Using a peer to peer data transfer between two cards in my PXI Chassis, I see an overflow error due to a low bandwidth. This problem only happens when my PXI Chassis is connected to the host computer with an MXI Thunderbolt connexion.

Solution

This issue is mainly due to the power management configuration of the host computer. Especially when the PCI power management is in economy mode. Switching the power management to max performances solves the issue.

 

Additional Information

The peer-to-peer transfer caused overflow issues in an MXI thunderbolt configuration due to the host computer PCI power management configuration. In power economy mode, the PCI link with the chassis goes to sleep when there is not enough traffic in the peer to peer transfer. This happens when the bandwidth of the peer to peer transfer is very low, for example when working with very low frequencies. The PCI line has the time to go sleep but not enough time to recover which causes the overflow. Switching the power management in the host computer to max performance solves the issue.