Category: FPGA

Microchip Microsemi PolarFire Low Power FPGA Series from 100K to 500K Logic Elements


Microchip PolarFire FPGAs deliver the industry’s lowest power at mid-range densities with security and reliability. The product family spans from 100K logic elements (LEs) to 500K LEs, features 12.7G transceivers and offers up to 50% lower power than competing mid-range FPGAs. The devices are ideal for a wide range of applications within wireline access networks and cellular infrastructure, defense and commercial aviation markets, as well as industrial automation and IoT market

Microchip Mi-V RISC-V CPU with Microsemi FPGA

Posted by – March 11, 2019

Microchip acquired Microsemi, and with it comes their new Mi-V RISC-V ecosystem, a suite of tools and design resources developed by Microsemi and third parties to support RISC-V designs using RISC-V Soft IP Cores available for RTG4, IGLOO2 and PolarFire FPGAs, introducing the industry’s first RISC-V SoC FPGA Architecture, PolarFire SoC which brings deterministic real-time performance to Linux in a coherent multi-core RISC-V CPU. The RISC-V Mi-V Ecosystem consists of various design tools such as the Libero SoC FPGA Design Suite, Eclipse based IDE SoftConsole enabling quick C and C++ development, a Firmware Catalog consisting of numerous drivers, and third party platforms for development, simulation and debug.

Shiratech shows LTE, NB-IoT, FPGA, Bosch sensors Mezzanine boards for 96Boards

Posted by – November 21, 2018

Shiratech produces ARM system on modules that cut time to market significantly and reduce project development risk. The Mezzanine board by shiratech is a dev board that provides LTE connectivity and can be connected to an arduino or Raspberry Pi. The SPECIFICATIONS are MAX-10 10M04: 256 FPGA package, 4K Logic Elements, 189Kb Block memory, Up to 156KB user FLASH memory, Dual internal configuration, and 178 GPIO FPGA programming using Altera standard programming connector.

Avnet shows $249 Ultra96 Xilinx Zynq UltraScale+ MPSoC development board

Posted by – September 8, 2018

From idea to design and from prototype to production, Avnet supports customers at each stage of a product’s lifecycle. A comprehensive portfolio of design and supply chain services makes Avnet the go-to guide for innovators who set the pace for technological change. For nearly a century, Avnet has helped its customers and suppliers around the world realize the transformative possibilities of technology.

Avnet has a very strong, technical community focus and is now home to such entities as Premier Farnell, Element14, MakerSource, hackster.io, and Raspberry Pi.

Avnet is Xilinx’ global distributor and technical partner. Xilinx has awarded Avnet a Premier partnership level in their Alliance Program. In addition to distributing Xilinx devices, Avnet also designs development boards, creates and delivers training, and also customizes and manufacturers Xilinx-based boards for customers around the world.

The Ultra96 is an example of this closer partnership, as Xilinx and Avnet have worked together to bring the board to market. Both companies will continue to support the board into the future.

Tomas Evensen, Xilinx CTO of Embedded Software at Linaro Connect

Posted by – March 24, 2018

Tomas Evensen talks about FPGA, the Xilinx Ultra96 development board to be available at $249 (also see my video with Xilinx about Ultra96 here) and the announcement by Xilinx of their upcoming 7nm FPGA with ARM cores SoCs to come in 2019 with up to 50 Billion transistors on the SoC.

Xilinx Ultra96, UltraScale+ FPGA 96Boards development board

Posted by – March 22, 2018

Ultra96 is an Arm-based, Xilinx Zynq UltraScale+ MPSoC development board based on the Linaro 96Boards specification. The 96Boards’ specifications are open and define a standard board layout for development platforms that can be used by software application, hardware device, kernel, and other system software developers. Ultra96 represents a unique position in the 96Boards community with a wide range of potential peripherals and acceleration engines in the programmable logic that is not available from other offerings.

Ultra96 boots from the provided Delkin 16 GB MicroSD card, pre-loaded with PetaLinux. Engineers have options of connecting to Ultra96 through a Webserver using integrated wireless access point capability or to use the provided PetaLinux desktop environment which can be viewed on the integrated Mini DisplayPort video output. Multiple application examples and on-board development options are provided as examples.

Ultra96 provides four user-controllable LEDs. Engineers may also interact with the board through the 96Boards-compatible low-speed and high-speed expansion connectors by adding peripheral accessories such as those included in Seeed Studio’s Grove Starter Kit for 96Boards.

Micron LPDDR4 memory provides 2 GB of RAM in a 512M x 32 configuration. Wireless options include 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.2 (provides both Bluetooth Classic and Low Energy (BLE)). UARTs are accessible on a header as well as through the expansion connector. JTAG is available through a header (external USB-JTAG required). I2C is available through the expansion connector.

Ultra96 provides one upstream (device) and two downstream (host) USB 3.0 connections. A USB 2.0 downstream (host) interface is provided on the high speed expansion bus. Two Microchip USB3320 USB 2.0 ULPI Transceivers and one Microchip USB5744 4-Port SS/HS USB Controller Hub are specified.

The integrated power supply generates all on-board voltages from an external 12V supply (available as an accessory).

Xilinx FPGA Keynote at Linaro Connect Hong Kong 2018

Posted by – March 21, 2018

HKG18-300K2 – Keynote: Tomas Evensen – All Programmable SoCs? – Platforms to enable the future of Embedded Machine Learning

As Moore’s law is slowing down, heterogeneous architectures are needed to keep up with the increasing compute requirements emerging from industry trends such as the use machine learning across a diverse range of markets and applications. These compute requirements require custom system architectures to suit the rapidly evolving demands of emerging algorithms, standards and trends.
Field Programmable hardware offers a unique capability to provide flexibility alongside advanced processor architectures to address this ever increasing multitude of applications. Development flows, programmability and flexibility are crucial to the enablement of these advancing algorithms and to enable the next generation of implementations in a world of advancing Artificial intelligence.
In this session we will introduce you to an all Programmable paradigm and low cost development platform to enable an ecosystem of flexibility and unparalleled programmability.
The future is now……

http://connect.linaro.org/resource/hkg18/hkg18-300k2/

Learn More at http://connect.linaro.org

OpenGPU on Altera Cyclone V FPGA at Linaro Connect 2017

Posted by – September 27, 2017

Fabrício Ribeiro Toloczko, ​Systems engineer of The Technological Integrated Systems Laboratory (LSI-tec) and CITI-USP (Interdisciplinary Center in Interactive Technologies from University of São Paulo) presents the OpenGPU, a real GPU implementation that proposes a methodology to progressively develop hardware from a software implementation, making the process for producing hardware more easy and fast. Today, it runs on an Altera Cyclone V SoC FPGA with a dual-core ARM Cortex-A9. This processor is used to keep running a Linux distribution, while sending and receiving data through the memory mapped communication with the FPGA. Mesa3D and Gallium’s softpipe driver are used for creating most of the graphic pipeline. The FPGA holds one rasterizer, which is a fixed function in graphic pipeline. With that, it’s possible to run any OpenGL application, doing the hardware and software changes in real time.

Altera Arria 10 FPGA with dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 on 20nm

Posted by – May 21, 2015

Altera is shipping their second generation ARM Cortex-A9 based FPGA in the Altera Arria 10 FPGA, built on 20nm, running at 1.5 GHz, the ARM processor provides a 50% increase in performance over the previous generation (Altera Arria 5) with also a 30% power reduction. Altera Arria 10 SoCs support secure boot with authentication based on Elliptical Curve Digital Signature Authentication (EC DSA), with a layered public key infrastructure for root of trust support, Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) and new anti-tamper features. Altera Arria 10 HPS now has three Ethernet MAC cores, 256 KB Scratch-RAM, supports 8- and 16-bit NAND flash devices, eMMC SD/SDIO/MMC cards, and 72-bit DDR3/4 memory. Altera Arria 10 features the industry’s only midrange 28.3 Gbps support, highest performance 2,666 Mbps DDR4 SDRAM memory interface, IEEE 754-compliant hard floating-point with 1,500 GFLOPS of DSP performance and 96 transceiver lanes deliver 3.6 Tbps of serial bandwidth.

Xilinx Zynq UltraScale+ FPGA MPSoC with quad ARM Cortex-A53 and dual ARM Cortex-R5

Posted by – March 16, 2015

Xilinx announces their next generation 16nm FPGA with quad-core ARM Cortex-A53 and dual-core ARM Cortex-R5, Mali400 GPU. The FPGA market is for designs where flexibility, high performance and fast time to market is important providing programmable hardware. The silicon is going to be available at the end of this year, so they are for now showing emulated version of their SoC. The dual-core ARM Cortex-R5 on the SoC are used for increased safety and security. By going with a 16nm 64bit design, Xilinx can pack a lot more performance without consuming more power than their previous dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 based Zynq 7000 which I filmed here http://138.2.152.197/2011/03/04/xilinx-zynq-7000-series-cortex-a9-in-fpga-at-embedded-world-2011/

Altera 14nm ARMv8 made by Intel

Posted by – September 21, 2014

Altera talks about their upcoming ARM solution made at the Intel Fab using Intel’s 14nm Tri-Gate technology, it’s the Altera Stratix10 FPGA delivering 2x core performance increase over previous FPGA solutions, 70% power savings using the 64bit quad-core ARM Cortex-A53 processor design, 3D-capable for integrating SRAM, DRAM ASIC, all manufactured on Intel’s 14nm Tri-Gate Fab. See more at: http://www.altera.com/devices/fpga/stratix-fpgas/stratix10/stx10-index.jsp You can also watch my video filmed last year with analyst Nathan Brookwood who initially reported on Intel manufacturing ARM Processors for Altera: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5XB88WVxBsY

OmniTek Xilinx HD to 4k Up-scaling Technology

Posted by – December 20, 2013

Omnitek is a UK based manufacturer of video testing and measurement systems as well as IP core development with Xilinx. The Xilinx development boards can take full HD video and upscale to 4k. OmniTek has been producing professional video equipment for a long time. Xilinx up-scaling technology will eventually make into consumer hardware. Xilinx technology can also be useful for medical or industrial applications as well general broadcasting. ARM powered devices are largely replacing pcs for embedded applications.

Rick Merritt, Silicon Valley Bureau Chief EETimes

Posted by – November 3, 2013

Rick Merritt provides an overview of the ARM Techcon 2013, talking about some of the latest stories published in EETimes, talking about some of his stories written from the ARM Techcon, talking about some of the highlights at ARM Techcon and in General Technology.

Intel to make ARM Processors, firstly 64bit 14nm ARM Cortex-A53 ARMv8 for Altera

Posted by – October 31, 2013

Nathan Brookwood is an Analyst and Research Fellow at Insight 64, he is the source for the Forbes article The new Intel CEO has changed Intel’s policy, now deciding that it’s actually OK to manufacture ARM Processors in their Fab. Possibly now Intel is also going to make ARM Processors for Apple, Qualcomm, Nvidia, AMD or someone else, possibly also even for themselves, possibly releasing a whole range of Intel ARM Processors to launch if Intel cares to have some reach into Smartphones, Tablets, ARM Laptops, Smart TVs, ARM Desktops, ARM Servers, I think Intel doesn’t need to not contribute to each of those ARM categories themselves too and by fabricating for Chip Makers, it depends what the new Intel CEO finds to be the thing to do for them.

Forbes: Intel to make ARM 64bit Processors in their Fab!

Posted by – October 30, 2013
Category: FPGA, Intel, ARM TechCon

You can read the news right here.

Intel confirms that they are ready to manufacture ARM Processors in their Fab. I’ve been suggesting this for years, now it seems to be true!

At the ARM developers’ conference today, Intel partner Altera announced that the world’s largest semiconductor company will fabricate its ARM’s 64-bit chips starting next year.

Of course!

Intel is to provide what the market wants, if people want ARM Processors, why should Intel not fabricate them in their Fabs?

Altera Corporation today announced that its Stratix 10 SoC devices, manufactured on Intel’s 14 nm Tri-Gate process, will incorporate a high-performance, quad-core 64-bit ARM Cortex™-A53 processor system, complementing the device’s floating-point digital signal processing (DSP) blocks and high-performance FPGA fabric.

Press release: http://newsroom.altera.com/press-releases/nr-altera-arm-a53.htm

Why wouldn’t Intel try to compete with Samsung, TSMC, Global Foundries to make the ARM Processor designs that the market wants!

Altera and Intel are pleased with the early results of the relationship between the companies and this announcement from Altera is consistent with the agreement we announced earlier this year. We have said that we will be open to manufacturing competitive architectures and would evaluate them on a case by case basis,

said Intel spokesman Chuck Mulloy.

Also, I believe Intel is probably working on their own ARM Processors designs, why not ARM Intel for Laptops, for Tablets, for Smartphones, for Smart TVs, for the Internet of Things. I believe that Intel’s new CEO was put into place to lead this new strategy at Intel, to make the processors that the market demands for.

Who knows, maybe Intel is able to make some of the best ARM Processors on the market, who knows, maybe Apple wants to make their next ARMv8 64bit Processor in an Intel Fab! Maybe Nvidia, Qualcomm would be happy to have some of their next ARM designs manufactured in Intel’s Fab!

Source: http://www.forbes.com/sites/jeanbaptiste/2013/10/29/exclusive-intel-opens-fabs-to-arm-chips/

World’s first 8K Camera by Astro Japan

Posted by – October 3, 2013
Category: Cameras, 4K UHD, FPGA, CEATEC

Unfortunately it costs $300’000. But it sure looks awesome. 8K 60p video recording is only possible with this camera on this planet. Just about Japanese NHK may also have some 8K camera of some kind but they also use Astro’s technology in that. Astro is a Tokyo based advanced video device engineering company. They make the new reference designs that all other TV and Camera companies used to benchmark and test commercial products that are being launched with 4K and 8K support. Astro was also one of the first manufacturers of 4k monitors and 4k cameras. When 8k displays become avaialable Astro will release an 8k monitor. Astro does not make components. Astro uses field-programmable gate array (FPGA) rather than mass produced processors, that is to get the fastest time to market while companies then optimize processes on processors that get used in cheaper mass market products that get sold worldwide.

Brief explanation by Astro of each product featured in the second part of this video:

VG-876 Video Signal Generator
This is our latest model.
This is to test TV, Projector or panel by displaying various test patterns. It supports 4K and 8K resolutions.
User can select interface among HDMI, DisplayPort, SDI or V-by-one HS.
Your own 4K natural pictures can also be used as test pattern.

DM-3432 4K monitor
32″ monitor of 3840×2160 resolution.
Input interface is SDI, HDMI or Displayport.

Uncompressed 4K video playing system
Our product is PCI Express card in the PC to output
4K uncompressed video.
It has 4 channels of 3G-SDI.
By using SD-7070 Interface converter, this 4ch of 3G-SDI
is converted to DisplayPort. This converter can also convert to HDMI.
Not only interface conversion, it can convert frame rate
(e.g. 30p to 60p), and video format (e.g. YCbCr to RGB).

VG-873 Video Signal Generator
This is the existing model of video signal generator, to output
up to 4K format signal.
Interface is selected among analog, HDMI, DisplayPort, DVI, LVDS or V-by-One HS.

VA-1838 HDMI Protocol Analyzer
Input signal from HDMI source machines (e.g. BluRay player, Set Top Box), this machine can analyze its protocol, video timing, HDCP status,
and monitor CEC command communication status.

VA-1836 MHL Protocol Analyzer
MHL is a digital video standard for mobile interfaces.
This machine also analyze its protocol, video timing, HDCP status, VBUS
status of input signal. It also monitors CBUS command communication
status.

VA-1839 GVIF Protocol Analyzer
GVIF is a digital video standard that is mostly used in car navigation system.
This machine can analyze its protocol, video timing and HDCP status of
input signal.

VA-1835 DisplayPort Protocol Analyzer
DisplayPort is a digital video standard that is mostly used by notebook PC or PC monitor.
This machine can analyze its protocol, video timing and HDCP status
of input signal.
It also monitors AUX line to see its communications.

About the manufacturer of SEIKI 4K TV shown at the end of this video is Tong Fang.

AppliedMicro X-Gene ARMv8 64-bit Server-on-chip shown on FPGA

Posted by – November 9, 2011

At ARM TechCon 2011 last week, Applied Micro was able to show their ARMv8 platform design already running on an FPGA, to be sent out to their partners in January so they can start working on the software for when they can have working silicon of their ARMv8 64-bit Server-on-chip platform, they say as early as in the 2nd half of 2012 already. Here is the full keynote presentation featuring Paramesh Gopi, president and CEO of Applied Micro, Lance Howarth, EVP Marketing at ARM, Dr. Christos Kozyrakis of Stanford University, Andrew Feldman, Founder and CEO of SeaMicro and Vinay Ravuri, Vice President of AppliedMicro’s Embedded and Processing Business Unit, presenting the worlds first ARMv8 64-bit processor demo running on an FPGA. I recommend that you watch the full webcast with slides on Applied Micro’s own website (enter a name and email to start watching in full screen with the synchronized slides), and here is the YouTube version without the slides as published by youtube.com/cnxlinux:

One can thus possibly understand from this that the ARM Powered Servers are going to be upgraded twice in the next year. Powered by Quad-core ARM Cortex-A9 now such as the HP Moonshot project powered by Calxeda EnergyCore, likely upgraded to ARM Cortex-A15 solutions (up to 8 cores) as soon as those are ready (2H 2012) and then again upgraded to ARMv8 64-bit running at up to 3Ghz which is what Applied Micro is saying that they can deliver early silicon of in just about a year from now. Thus ARM Powered Servers are going to run at up to full performance levels, not only being suitable for lower power consumption and lower price but also aiming to deliver the full maximum performance that some people building servers say they need.

Microsemi Smart Fusion Custumizable SoC

Posted by – October 27, 2011

Rajiv Nema, product line manager, describes how Microsemi’s Smart Fusion works, to combined the ARM Cortex-M3 with FPGA to provide for customizable system on chip.

PLDA PCI Express and USB3 for ASIC and FPGA

Posted by – October 26, 2011

They can provide the IP to integrate PCI Express type 3 and USB3 on ARM Powered devices, for example and ARM Powered Laptop or Tablet.

Xilinx Zynq 7000 series Cortex-A9 in FPGA at Embedded World 2011

Posted by – March 4, 2011

Xilinx is the market leader in FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Arrays), at Embedded World 2011, they are showing their new implementation consisting of putting a Dual-core Cortex-A9 system, memory controller, and nand controller is put inside of the FPGA system. The Zynq 7010, with a dual-core Cortex-A9 running at 800MHz and 30,000 programmable logic cells, will sell for less than $15 in volume. This solution can be imagined to be found in automative applications such as driver assist applications, medical applications and industrial control applications.