Efinix introduces the low-power Topaz RISC-V SoC FPGA family for "high-volume, mass-market applications"

Efinix Topaz is a new low-power RISC-V SoC FPGA family manufactured with the same 16nm TSMC process as the Efinix Titanium SoC FPGA, but optimized for high-performance in a low-power footprint, and targetting high-volume, mass-market applications.

The Topaz SoC FPGAs provide fewer features than the Titanium family but still offer up to four RISC-V hard cores, PCIe Gen3, MIPI interfaces, LPDDR4, LVDS, and 12.5 Gbps transmitter with most features being optional and depending on the exact SKUs selected.

Efinix Topaz key features and specifications:

FPGA compute fabric
- Up to 326,080 logic elements (LEs)
- Up to 19.22 Mbits embedded memory
- Up to 1,877 10-Kbit SRAM blocks
- Up to 1,008 embedded DSP blocks
Memory – 10-kbit high-speed, embedded SRAM, configurable as single-port RAM, simple dual-port RAM, true dual-port RAM, or ROM
FPGA interface blocks
- Optional 32-bit quad-core hardened RISC-V block (RISCV32I with M, A, C, F, and D extensions and six pipeline stages)
- Up to 2x high-speed transceiver banks, each with 4 lanes:
  - Support data rates up to 12.5 Gbps
  - One lane with PCIe Gen3 x1
  - Supports SGMII, 10GBase-KR protocols,PMA Direct
- 16-bit or 32-bit LPDDR4/LPDDR4x PHY interface
- Up to 4x MIPI D-PHY RX and 4x TX interfaces with speeds up to 2.0 Gbps
- General-purpose I/O (GPIO) pins:
  - Up to 84x High-voltage I/O (HVIO)
  - Up to 200x High-speed I/O (HSIO) for various differential standards such as LVDS (1.3 Gbps), and differential HSTL/SSTL.
- Up to 12x PLL
Packages
- 5.5×5.5mm 100-ball FBGA with 0.5mm pitch
- 10x10mm 225-ball FBGA with 0.65mm pitch
- 13x13mm 256-ball FBGA with 0.8mm pitch
- 13x13mm 361-ball FBGA with 0.65mm pitch
- 16x16mm 400-ball FBGA with 0.8mm pitch
- 18x18mm 484-ball FBGA with 0.8mm pitch
- 19x19mm 529-ball FBGA with 0.8mm pitch
- 22x22mm 676-ball FBGA with 0.8mm pitch
Temperaturature Range (depends on selected SKU)
- Commercial – 0°C to +85°C
- Industrial – -40°C to +100°C
Manufacturing Process – TSMC 16nm

Seven parts are available namely Tz50, Tz75, Tz100, Tz170, Tz200, and Tz325, each offered with various packages and in commercial or industrial temperature range. Some are pure FPGAs without a hardened processor, while others are Linux-capable thanks to a hardened quad-core RISC-V block.

Like other Efinix FPGAs, the new Topaz SoC FPGA family is supported by the Efinity software (RTL-to-bitstream compiler) available for Windows 10/11 64-bit and Linux (Ubuntu/Red Hat Enterprise). The RISC-V block in the FPGA is based on the company’s Sapphire soft-core that can run bare metal code, RTOS, or Linux. Efinix also provides BR2-Efinix custom Buildroot external tree for building Linux with OpenSBI, U-boot, Linux, and Buildroot configuration files. The code and instructions on how to get started are available on GitHub.

Topaz FPGAs are suitable for industrial robotics with machine vision support, industrial printers, wireless repeaters, and broadcast imaging and controls thanks to their high-speed interfaces (MIPI, PCIe Gen3 x1, etc…), and FPGA fabric. I could not find pricing and availability information, but the company commits to supplying the new RISC-V SoC FPGAs until at least 2037. Additional information may be found on the product page and in the press release.

Thanks to TLS for the tip.

Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft)

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.