Achieving PCIe Integrators List

Axelera AI Achieve PCI-SIG Integrators List Status for Their Metis AI Accelerator Cards

Securing a place on the PCI-SIG Integrators List is a significant milestone for any product relying on PCI Express technology. It demonstrates that a device has been formally tested, behaves correctly across a wide range of systems, and is fully recognised by the PCI-SIG as compliant with the PCIe specification. For AI accelerators deployed in edge environments where system diversity is the norm, this compliance becomes even more critical.

Axelera® AI develops purpose-built AI accelerators that deliver high performance at low power, reducing AI infrastructure costs for edge deployments. The company offers their Metis® AIPUs in multiple form factors, including PCIe cards designed for easy integration into existing systems. Achieving PCIe Integrators List status provides OEMs and system integrators with verified compliance assurance, eliminating the need for redundant testing and accelerating deployment timelines. When Axelera decided to pursue this certification for their Metis cards, Teledyne LeCroy's Austin Labs, a long-established and highly regarded industry-recognized test lab for protocol and physical layer compliance testing, proved invaluable in navigating the path to achieving this goal.

The Metis PCIe cards operate at PCIe Gen3 speeds (8 GT/s), which are sufficient because most AI inference workloads on Metis don't require continuous high-speed data transfer from the host. The model weights and input data are transferred to the on-board memory, inference happens locally, and only results are sent back. Still, the Metis cards had to be evaluated under the PCIe 4.0 Compliance Programme. When it comes to PCIe compliance, speed and specification are not the same thing!

Austin Labs took responsibility for managing the entire PCIe test programme, giving Axelera the reassurance that every aspect of compliance and interoperability would be handled coherently. The work began with a series of pre-compliance checks designed to highlight any signal integrity or link-training issues that might undermine performance during official testing.

They then carried out formal protocol layer compliance testing in line with the PCIe 4.0 specification at 8 GT/s. This included verification of link state transitions, configuration space behaviour and transaction accuracy to ensure the cards operated consistently across different system conditions.

In parallel, Austin Labs coordinated all physical layer testing, arranging accredited electrical measurements for transmitter and receiver performance, eye-diagram assessment and jitter behaviour. The engineering feedback provided throughout this stage allowed the Axelera team to fine-tune equalisation settings, firmware behaviour and timing characteristics where necessary.

Having both protocol and physical testing managed by a single experienced organisation significantly reduced uncertainty and removed the need for the team to attend PCI-SIG Workshops, which often involve complex scheduling and travel. The approach ensured the Metis cards were fully ready for official submission.

The result of this process was the successful inclusion of both the Metis PCIe CEM and Metis M.2 cards on the PCI-SIG Integrators List. This achievement confirms that the accelerators meet the requirements of the PCIe 4.0 Compliance Programme and can interoperate reliably across a variety of host platforms and system architectures. For Axelera AI, it provides customers and partners with clear, recognised assurance of product robustness and standards compliance.

“PCIe compliance isn't just a checkbox for us. It's about ensuring our customers can integrate our AIPUs into their systems with confidence," said [Name/Title] at Axelera AI. "Working with Telexus and Teledyne LeCroy's Austin Labs gave us access to the expertise we needed to verify interoperability. Now, when OEMs and integrators see our cards on the PCI-SIG Integrators List, they know the hard work of compliance testing is already done. That means they can focus on building transformative AI solutions, not troubleshooting hardware compatibility.”

Axelera AI is delivering the world’s most powerful and advanced solutions for AI at the Edge. Its industry-defining Metis® AI platform – a complete hardware and software solution for AI inference at the edge – makes computer vision applications more accessible, powerful and user friendly than ever before.

Achieving Integrators List status is about far more than meeting a specification. It provides market confidence in a product’s reliability and its ability to function correctly across diverse environments. Identifying potential compliance issues early and having access to highly experienced PCIe engineers can reduce development cycles, minimise risk and help ensure products reach customers sooner and with greater assurance.

As the authorised UK and Ireland distributor for Teledyne LeCroy, we can connect engineering teams directly with the global expertise they need. Whether it’s PCIe, USB, Ethernet or any other high-speed standard, the combination of local understanding and international technical capability makes a significant difference to customers working towards formal recognition of their products.

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