Kondor AX FPGA + ARM Networking Board Targets Base Stations, IoT Gateways and IP Cameras

Mikro Project, a company based in Zagreb, Croatia, has recently introduced Kondor AX “Advanced System Development Board” combining  Freescale i.MX6Solo processor with Lattice ECP5 FPGA, and targeting “low power applications at the network edge including HetNet (Heterogeneous Networks), Small Cells, Industrial IoT gateways and IP Cameras.” Kondor AX development board specifications: Category Lattice ECP5 LFE5UM-85F-BG756 FPGA Freescale i.MX6 Solo SoC Description 84.000 LUTs 207 Block RAMs 156 18×18 Multipliers 365 IO pins 4 SERDES channels (In/out) 400 MHz LPDDR3 Memory Support 4 PLLs, 4 DLLs ARM Cortex A9 @ 1 GHz 512 KB L2 cache GPU 3D – Vivante GC880 Video Decode: 1080p30 + D1 Video Encode: 1080p30 H.264 BP/ Dual 720p encode Programming options On-board USB JTAG interface 10-pin JTAG header Using i.MX6 processor Memory & Storage 512MB LPDDR3-1600 800 MHz Clock Rate 1x 32-bit channel 512 MB 32-bit DDR3 64Mbit SPI Flash 8GB eMMC Micro SD Card Connectivity  […]

giggleBits Hackable ARM & FPGA Router Comes with an SFP Cage and 5 Gigabit Ethernet Ports (Crowdfunding)

Remember Snickerdoodle board? If you don’t, the board is one of the cheapest Xilinx Zynq available on the market, and the project is currently on CrowdSupply, and 75% funded with 28 days left. They’ve just posted an update about a new daughterboard that I found interesting: giggleBits which provides 5 Gigabit Ethernet and an SFP cage on top of WiFi 802.11 b/g/n and Bluetooth connectivity already found on Snickerdoodle board. giggleBits + snickerdoodle specifications: SoC/Memory/Storage/WiFi via Snickerdoodle board: SoC Xilinx Zynq-7010 dual core Cortex A9 processor @ 667 MHz + FPGA with 430K gates or Xilinx Zynq-7020 dual core Cortex A9 processor @ 866 MHz + FPGA with 1.3million gates (~430K ASIC gates) System Memory – 512MB or 1GB LPDDR2-800 Storage – micro SD card slot, 16MB boot flash Ti Wilink 8 –  single or dual band 802.11 b/g/n WiFi + Bluetooth 4.0 Expansion – 4x 40-pin TFM headers for access […]

PicoZed SDR (Software Defined Radio) System-on-Module Supports 70 MHz to 6.0 GHz Frequency Bands

PicoZed SoM based on Xilinx Zynq-7000 series SoCs was introduced in 2014  by Avnet. The company has now introduced a new version specifically designed for software designed radios which combines Zynq-7035 SoC with Analog Devices AD9361 RF transceiver supporting 70 MHz to 6.0 GHz frequency bands. Target applications include portable agile wireless communications, P25 public safety Radio, point-to-point communication, femtocell & picocell base stations and portable instrumentation. PicoZed SDR SoM specifications: SoC – Xilinx Zynq XC7Z035-2L FBG676I AP SoC with a dual core Cortex A9 processor @ 800 MHz and Kintex-7 FPGA with 275K logic cells System Memory – 1GB DDR3L SDRAM Storage – 256Mb QSPI Flash, microSD Card Interface Network Connectivity – 10/100/1000 Ethernet PHY USB – USB 2.0 OTG ULPI PHY I/Os – 205+ User I/O + 4 GTX channels Radio Transceiver – Analog Devices AD9361-BBCZ integrated RF Agile Transceiver with: 2 × 2 RF transceiver with integrated […]

Snickerdoodle Xilinx Zynq ARM + FPGA Board Starts at $55 (Crowdfunding)

While Xilinx Zynq UltraScale+ ARMv8 + FPGA SoC is still in development, there are already quite a few Xilinx Zynq-7000 boards on the market today. The cheapest I know of is MYirTech Z-Turn board selling for $99, but krtkl (pronounced “critical“), US a based startup, will soon bring an even cheaper Zynq-7010/7020 board with their Snickerdoodle board currently listed on CrowdSupply platform for $55 and up, plus shipping. Snickerdoodle board specifications: SoC Xilinx Zynq-7010 dual core Cortex A9 processor @ 667 MHz + FPGA with 430K gates or Xilinx Zynq-7020 dual core Cortex A9 processor @ 866 MHz + FPGA with 1.3million gates (~430K ASIC gates) System Memory – 512MB or 1GB LPDDR2-800 Storage – micro SD card slot, 16MB boot flash Connectivity via Ti Wilink 8 solution 2.4GHz 802.11 b/g/n WiFi + Bluetooth 4.0 or Dual band 802.11 b/g/n WiFi (2×2 MIMO) + Bluetooth 4.0 USB – 1x micro USB port […]

Digilent ARTY is a $99 Xilinx Artix-7 FPGA Board with Arduino Headers

Low cost FPGA boards with Arduino headers are nothing new, as we’ve seen before with Arduissimo and Papilio DUO, but both of these boards are based on Spartan 6 FPGA, while the recent Digilent ARTY board is powered by an Artix-7 FPGA. Beside the hardware differences, Spartan 6 FPGAs only support Xilinx ISE Design Suite, while Artix-7 parts are also supported by Vivado Design Suite, which according to Xilinx has a much better workflow and user interface. Digilent ARTY specifications: FPGA – Xilinx XC7A35T-L1CSG324I with 33,280 logic cells, 1,800 Kb block RAM, 90 DSP slices, and 250 I/O pins System memory – 256 MB DDR3L SDRAM Storage – 16 MB of QSPI Flash Connectivity – 10/100M Ethernet Expansion interfaces 4 Digilent compatible Pmod interfaces enabling 32 user I/O pins: 2 Pmods routed as differential pairs, paired to fit dual-wide Pmods Arduino UNO R3 shield / chipKit interface Debugging – USB-UART Interface, […]

ARM TechCon 2015 Schedule – IoT, Servers, 64-bit ARM, Power Usage Optimization, and More

The ARM Technology Conference (ARM TechCon) will take place on November 10 – 12, 2015, in Santa Clara Convention Center, and just like every year, there will be a free exposition for companies to showcase their latest innovation and/or products, as well as a technical conference with sessions and workshops sorted into various tracks: Automotive/Embedded Vision Embedded IoT Mobile/Connectivity Networking Infrastructure/Servers Tools & Implementation Wearables/Sensors ARM Training Day Sponsored Vendor Training Special Event General Event Software Developers Workshop You can find the complete schedule on ARM TechCon website. Although I won’t attend, I’ve created my own virtual schedule with some of the sessions I found interesting. Tuesday – November 10 8:30 – 9:20 – ARM Vision for Thermal Management and Energy Aware Scheduling on Linux by Ian Rickards (ARM), Charles Garcia-Tobin (ARM), Bobby Batacharia (ARM) This talk will cover the history and where are we going, for ARM’s Power Software (IPA, […]

Numato Opsis is an Open Source Hardware FPGA Board with 6 Video Inputs and Outputs (Crowdfunding)

Numato Lab is a Bangalore based company specializing in MCU and FPGA boards such as the low cost Mimas V2 Spartan 6 board, and their latest board is also based on a Spartan 6 FPGA, but a more powerful part with LX45T FPGA, and targets video applications with two HDMI inputs, two HDMI outputs, one DisplayPort output, and one DisplayPort input, among other interfaces. Instead of simply listing specifications of Numato Opsis, I’ll reproduce a table – drawn by Numato – showing Opsis features and specifications against some other FPGA video platforms. Opsis miniSpartan6+ Mixxeo Atlys Nexys Anvyl CVK 2.0 AVDB Make Numato ScarabHardware M‑Labs Digilent Digilent Digilent TED OmniTek License Open Open Open Closed Closed Closed Closed Closed Cost USD $349 USD $105 no stock USD $419 USD $499 USD $539 USD $2,995 USD $999 FPGA Fab Xilinx Xilinx Xilinx Xilinx Xilinx Xilinx Xilinx Altera Family Spartan‑6 Spartan‑6 Spartan‑6 Spartan‑6 Artix‑7 Spartan‑6 Spartan‑6 Cyclone V Part LX45T […]

Parallella Desktop Computer Board Price Drops to $99 (Temporary)

Parallella “super computer” board with Xilinx Zynq-7010 ARM+FPGA SoC and Adapteva’s 16-core Epiphany coprocessor may have started at $99 uring their Kickstarter campaign, but once the board became more broadly available, price started at $119 for the microserver version, and $149 for the desktop computer version which adds a micro HDMI port, a micro USB port, and some expansion I/Os. But to get rid of some stock, the company has decided to temporary decrease the desktop version price to $99 on Amazon. Let’s remind us of the desktop computer board specifications: SoC – Xilinx Zynq Z7010 dual-Core ARM Cortex A9 with 512KB L2 Shared Cache + Artix-7 FPGA with 28K logic cells Coprocessor – 16-core Epiphany-III processor System Memory – 1GB DDR3 Storage – micro SD slot + 128Mb quad SPI flash Connectivity – 10/100/1000M Ethernet Video Output – 1x micro HDMI USB – 1x micro USB host port Expansion […]

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