Earlier this week, I wrote about EnSilica eSi-ZM1, a system-on-module based on Xilinx Zynq7000 Extensible Processing Platform that comes with a dual core ARM Cortex A9 and FPGA fabric. It turns out Xilinx is not the only game in town, and Altera’s Cyclone V SoC, announced last December, also includes a dual core ARM Cortex A9 processor with Altera FPGA logic, and Critical Linux recently announced MityARM-5CSX computer-on-module based on this platform. Target applications include machine vision, scientific imaging, motor control, medical imaging and instrumentation, test and measurement, industrial instrumentation, as well as a military & aerospace.
MityARM-5CSX specifications:
- SoC – Altera Cyclone V SX-U672 with FPGA logic and dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 up to 800MHz
- System Memory – 1GB DDR3 RAM, and 256MB DDR3 FPGA RAM (optional)
- Storage – 32MB QPSI NOR flash
- FPGA I/O fabric:
- PCIe hard core
- Up to 145 user-programmable I/O lines (including several 875MHz SerDes lanes)
- 6x 3.124 Gbps transceivers
- Connectivity – Dual Gigabit Ethernet
- I/Os – 2x USB OTG, CAN, 2x UART, 4x I2C, 2 master / 2 slave SPI, GPIO,
- JTAG connector
- Temperature range – Commercial and industrial
- Power management functions
- Dimensions – 82 x 38mm
- Connector – MXM 3.0 right-angle connector
Critical Link will support several OS including RT Linux, Android, uC/OS, QNX, and Windows CE. Development can be done with Altera Quartus II, and the GNU toolchain.
MityARM-5CSX is expected to be available in Q3 2013 from several distributors including Arrow Electronics, Mouser, and DigiKey, and Linuxgizmos reports the price should be around $500 per unit (and one unit order). You may find more information on Critical Link’s MityARM-5CSX page.
Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.
Support CNX Software! Donate via cryptocurrencies, become a Patron on Patreon, or purchase goods on Amazon or Aliexpress
500 dollars a piece? FPGA vendors are going to take the market by storm…
@Galland
I did not expect it to be cheap, but I did not expect it to be that expensive either. I’ve only worked with CPLDs never FPGAs, so I’m not exactly sure of the normal price.
You guys got too used to pricing of stuff like Rasberry Pi or crappy chinese HDMI Sticks.
The Chip alone costs around 180 Euro (maybe around 150 if you buy a few)! And “normal” companies that are not after super high consumer(!) volumes must sell their products for production cost *2 or more if they want to make any profit at all (due to low volumes and high development costs).
This is clearly not intended for consumer/hobby users, and I am pretty sure you can get a much better price when you buy 100pcs as industrial customer.