What is the simplest way to transmit a signal over MGT of Xilinx FPGA?

Question

I want to send signals (doesn't matter what type of signal, just random binary) over MGT lanes of a Xilinx FPGA. This is for testing the MGT traces on the PCB. What is the simplest way I can achieve this? For a regular IO I would simply use an output buffer (OBUF) and send out the signal to the output pins. What would be the equivalent of this (or the simplest equivalent of this) for MGT bank pins?

EDIT: I want to stay away from ipcores as much as possible. I'm looking for a really simple solution to somehow buffer signals to MGT pins.

Answer 1

If you have both TX and RX lanes then I would suggest to perform loopback test. FPGA would produce data on TX link, receive it on RX and compare results.

To do so you can connect TX lanes to RX lanes on PCB connector and use FPGA Ibert core that will automatically create transmit, receive and compare circuits and produce nice results for each lane.

For 7 series here is the link to Ibert core http://www.xilinx.com/products/intellectual-property/ibert_7series_gtx.html

For other families Ibert is also available.