Design Gateway — Special Reference Design

4-Channel RAID0 NVMe Gen5
Achieving 40,000 MB/s Write Performance

Special Reference Design  for  Ultra-High-Speed Data Recording in Aerospace & Defense, Test & Measurement and Video & Media Processing
PCIe Gen5 4-Channel RAID0 No CPU / No DDR 16K Video @ 100 fps 400GbE Capture
40,000
MB/s
Write Performance

Design Gateway NVMe-IP for Gen5 enables direct, hardware-based access to four PCIe Gen5 NVMe SSDs in RAID0 mode on the Intel Agilex™ 7 I-Series board, delivering ultra-high write throughput for real-time data recording applications. CPU-based NVMe solutions are constrained by software overhead, OS latency, and PCIe protocol stack processing. Design Gateway's FPGA-based NVMe-IP eliminates these bottlenecks by implementing the entire NVMe and PCIe protocol stack in dedicated silicon logic — delivering deterministic, maximum-throughput storage access.

Why Use FPGA and NVMe-IP?
Maximum Throughput
Maximum Throughput, Zero OS Overhead

The NVMe-IP core drives PCIe Gen5 bandwidth directly from FPGA logic without any CPU, OS scheduler, or driver stack in the data path. Every byte of available SSD bandwidth is exploited.

Flexible RAID Scaling
Flexible RAID & Multi-Channel Scaling

The RAID0 controller is implemented in programmable logic, making it trivially scalable. 2-channel, 4-channel, or custom configurations can be achieved with only logic modifications — no hardware changes.

No External DDR Memory
No External DDR Memory Required

On-chip memory buffers (up to 1 MB RAM) inside the NVMe-IP eliminate the need for external DDR, reducing board size, power consumption, and BOM cost — enabling ultra-compact embedded designs.

Proven IP with Rapid Evaluation
Proven IP with Rapid Evaluation

A free evaluation demo file is available for immediate download. The reference design cuts development time from months to days, with complete documentation, firmware, and board setup instructions included.

Application Areas

The 40 GB/s write capability of the 4-channel RAID0 NVMe Gen5 system opens real-time data capture and storage use cases that were previously only achievable with large rack-mounted server arrays.

🛰️ Aerospace & Defense
Electronic Warfare Data Recording

Electronic Warfare Data Recording

Continuous capture of wideband RF signals and radar returns at 40 GB/s for post-mission analysis and SIGINT processing.

Flight Data Recorder Systems

Flight Data Recorder (FDR) Systems

High-integrity recording of multi-channel avionics, navigational, and structural health monitoring data streams.

UAV Drone Sensor Logging

UAV / Drone Sensor Logging

Compact FPGA + NVMe SSD integration for onboard recording of multi-spectral imaging, LiDAR, and telemetry in SWaP-constrained platforms.

📈 Test & Measurement / Instrumentation
400GbE Packet Capture

400GbE Packet Capture & Analysis

Lossless recording of full 400 Gbps Ethernet traffic for network forensics, protocol analysis, and fault detection without dropping a single packet.

Protocol Testing and Conformance

Protocol Testing & Conformance

Capture and replay of PCIe, CXL, and Ethernet protocol transactions at Gen5 speeds for device characterization and standards certification.

RF Signal Recording

RF Signal Recording

Broadband RF and IF signal capture from ADC arrays enabling deep post-capture analysis of transient phenomena and spectrum monitoring.

🎬 Video & Media Processing
16K Ultra-High-Resolution Video Recording

16K Ultra-High-Resolution Video Recording

40 GB/s write throughput supports uncompressed 16K video recording at up to 100 fps — enabling broadcast, cinema, and scientific imaging.

Multi-Camera Live Production

Multi-Camera Live Production

Simultaneous capture of multiple uncompressed 4K/8K streams from broadcast cameras or industrial vision arrays into a single compact recorder.

Real-Time Video Transcoding and Archiving

Real-Time Video Transcoding & Archiving

FPGA-based hardware encoding pipelines stream transcoded video directly to NVMe RAID storage without CPU involvement at broadcast quality.

System Requirements
FPGA Development Kit Altera Agilex™ 7 I-Series Development Kit (DK-DEV-AGI027-RA)
SSD Interface Adapter Design Gateway AB19-M2PCI — PCIe Gen5 M.2 adapter, supports up to 4 NVMe SSDs
NVMe SSDs 4× M.2 NVMe PCIe Gen5 SSDs (e.g., Gigabyte Aorus 10000, Crucial T700)
PC Windows or Linux PC (for configuration and terminal)
IP Core NVMe-IP for Gen5 (NVMe-IP-A7I) × 4 + RAID0 Controller
Reference Design 4-Ch RAID0 NVMe-IP for Gen5 Reference Design
Free Evaluation Demo

A free evaluation demo file for the Agilex™ 7 I-Series is publicly available. Download and verify 40 GB/s performance on real hardware before purchasing the IP core license.

For more details, please refer to the demo video and documentation published on our website.

📄 Reference Design Document 📋 Demo Instruction Manual 💾 Free Evaluation Demo Bitfile (Agilex 7 I-Series) ✉️ Contact Us
DEMO VIDEO
NVMe-IP Gen5 4ch RAID0 Demo — 40,000 MB/s
Demonstrating 40 GB/s SSD Write Performance
with 4-Channel NVMe-IP Gen5 RAID0 on Intel Agilex™ 7
▶ Watch Demo Video
■ For a time-limited free demo, please contact us ■