Install PCIe Host

Use this page to install the Neat PCIe host package on a Linux machine connected to a Modalix PCIe Card.

The Neat PCIe host package provides co-processing APIs for sending input from a host machine to a connected Modalix PCIe Card and receiving inference results.

Install on the PCIe host machine

Run this installation on the PCIe host machine connected to the Modalix PCIe Card. Do not run it inside the Neat SDK container, on a DevKit, or on the Modalix PCIe Card.

Supported host operating systems

The Neat PCIe host package supports the following validated host platforms:

Operating system	Architecture	Support
Ubuntu 22.04	x86_64	Supported
Ubuntu 24.04	x86_64	Supported

Arm64 host builds have not yet been validated. Windows 11 is not supported.

Prerequisites

Before installing the package:

• Install sima-cli on the PCIe host. Use the sima-cli installation guide.
• Install and verify the PCIe host driver by following the PCIe Driver Installation guide.
• Connect and configure the Modalix PCIe Card so its management interface is reachable from the host. The default address for card 0 is 10.0.0.2.
• Install a compatible Neat Library version on the card. The host and card packages must come from compatible releases.

Authenticate the PCIe host so it can download SiMa.ai artifacts:

pcie-host$sima-cli login

Install the PCIe Host Package

Choose a working directory on the PCIe host, then run the command for the installed Ubuntu version.

Ubuntu 22.04 on x86_64:

pcie-host$sima-cli neat install core/pciehost/ubuntu22/amd64@v0.4.0

Ubuntu 24.04 on x86_64:

pcie-host$sima-cli neat install core/pciehost/ubuntu24/amd64@v0.4.0

The installer adds everything needed to develop and run Neat PCIe host applications, including the C++ API and a Python environment at ~/pyneatpcie.

It also installs the neat-pcie-application-builder coding-agent skill for Codex and Claude from the sima-neat/core repository. Skill installation is best-effort so a temporary GitHub or coding-agent configuration problem does not block the PCIe host packages. If it reports a warning, retry with:

pcie-host$sima-cli playbooks install gh:sima-neat/core/pcie_host/skills/neat-pcie-application-builder

During the first installation, SSH provisioning can request the sima account password for the card. It creates or reuses ~/.ssh/sima_neat_pcie_ed25519 and installs its public key on the card. Normal PCIe operation then uses passwordless SSH for card-side model setup.

Verify the installation

Confirm that the Python API and PCIe host plugin are available:

pcie-host$source ~/pyneatpcie/bin/activatepcie-host$python3 -c "import pyneatpcie; print('pyneatpcie ready')"pcie-host$gst-inspect-1.0 neatpciehost

Troubleshooting

If SSH provisioning cannot discover the card automatically, first verify that the host can reach its management address:

pcie-host$ping -c 1 10.0.0.2

Then run the installed setup utility with the address explicitly:

pcie-host$pcie-setup.sh --hosts "10.0.0.2"

If package installation or runtime startup fails, confirm that the PCIe host package and the Neat Library installed on the card are from compatible releases.

Next Step

Continue with PCIe Co-Processing to verify the complete host-to-card development path.