fpga

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments on Amazon EC2 F1 Instances Put Xilinx Virtex Ultrascale+ FPGA Boards into the Cloud

Amazon EC2 F1 Instances Put Xilinx Virtex Ultrascale+ FPGA Boards into the Cloud

We’ve covered several board and modules based on Xilinx Zynq Ultrascale+ MPSoC such as the AXIOM Board and Trenz TE0808 SoM, both featuring ZU9EG MPSoC, with systems selling for several thousands dollars. But I’ve been informed you may not need to purchase a board to use Virtex UltraScale+ FPGAs, which are different from Zynq UltraScale+ since they lack the ARM CPU & GPU and normally feature a more capable FPGA, as last November, Amazon launched a developer preview of F1 instances giving access to this type of hardware from their cloud. That’s the FPGA hardware you’ll be able to access from one F1 instance: Xilinx UltraScale+ VU9P manufactured using a 16 nm process. 64 GB of ECC-protected memory on a 288-bit wide bus (four DDR4 channels). Dedicated PCIe x16 interface to the CPU. Approximately 2.5 million logic elements. Approximately 6,800 Digital Signal Processing (DSP) engines. Virtual JTAG interface for debugging. […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment on Trenz Electronic TE0808 UltraSOM+ is a Xilinx Zynq Ultrascale+ ZU9EG System-on-Module

Trenz Electronic TE0808 UltraSOM+ is a Xilinx Zynq Ultrascale+ ZU9EG System-on-Module

Xilinx Zynq Ultrascale+ ARM Cortex A53 + FPGA SoC have now started to show up in boards such as AXIOM Board based on Zynq Ultrascale+ ZU9EG. Price for the board has not been announced, and while a similar Xilinx development kit goes for close to $3,000, some people are expecting the board to sell for $400 to $600. Since the price of FPGA vary a lot from a few dollars to $40,000 for the top end chips, I decided to find pricing info about Xilinx Zynq Ultrascale+ MPSoCs which lead me to Trenz Electronic TE0808 system-on-module, which was unveiled in May last year, and I’ll cover in the second part of this post, after – hopefully quickly – describing Zynq Ultrascale+ family and nomenclature, and addressing the price “issue”. First, there are three sub-families within Zynq Ultrascale+ MPSoC portfolio: CG models with 2x Cortex A53, 2x Cortex R5, FPGA fabric […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 9 Comments on EU funded AXIOM Board is Powered by Xilinx Zynq UltraScale+ FPGA + ARM SoC

EU funded AXIOM Board is Powered by Xilinx Zynq UltraScale+ FPGA + ARM SoC

Back in 2015, Xilinx unveiled Zynq Ultrascale+ MPSoC combining ARM Cortex A53 & Cortex R5 cores, a Mali-400MP2 GPU, and UltraScale FPGA, and the company recently launched ZCU102 Evaluation Kit based on the SoC, which sells for just under $3,000. But if you are based in the European Union, you’ll be glad to learn about 4 millions Euros of your taxes have been spent to design a board based on the same MPSoC family as part of the AXIOM project, which was developed in collaboration with European universities and companies with the “aim of researching new software/hardware architectures for Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) to meet the expectations” in terms of computational power, energy efficiency, scalability through modularity, easy programmability, and leverage of the best existing standards at minimal costs. AXIOM (Agile, eXtensible, fast I/O Module) board’s key specifications: SoC – Xilinx Zynq Ultrascale+ ZU9EG MPSoC with four ARM Cortex A53 cores […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments on Alorium XLR8 Arduino Compatible Altera MAX 10 FPGA Board Sells for $75

Alorium XLR8 Arduino Compatible Altera MAX 10 FPGA Board Sells for $75

We already have a fair choice of boards with Arduino compatible headers powered by an FPGA with options such as $99 Digilent Arty (Xilinx Artix-7 FPGA), FleaFPGA (Lattice FPGA), Papillio DUO (Xilinx Spartan 6), or Snickerdoodle + shieldBuddy (Xilinx Zynq-7010/20). There’s no yet another choice with Alorium Technology XLR8 Arduino UNO like board powered by Altera MAX10 FPGA. XLR8 board specifications: FPGA – Altera MAX 10 FPGA MCU – Atmel/Microchip ATmega328 8-bit MCU Digital I/Os 5V inputs, 3.3V outputs 14x Digital I/O Pins 6x PWM Digital I/O Pins 6x Analog Pins Analog Inputs 5V tolerant Op-amp circuit emulates 0-5V behavior of the ADCs on the Arduino UNO Performance: 1 MHz; Resolution: 12-bit sustained Sample Rate: 154k samples/second Power Supply – 5V via USB or barrel connector Dimensions – Arduino UNO form factor The board is supported by Altera Quartus Prime Lite Edition, and programmable either via JTAG though a USB […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 7 Comments on Intel Has Started Sampling Altera Stratix 10 ARM Cortex A53 + FPGA SoC

Intel Has Started Sampling Altera Stratix 10 ARM Cortex A53 + FPGA SoC

Intel bought Altera last year, which means Intel is now in the FPGA business, and the company has recently announced they had started to provide samples of Startix 10 SoC manufactured using Intel 14 nm tri-gate process. The interesting part if that beside FPGA fabric, the SoC also includes four ARM Cortex A53 cores. Intel / Altera Stratix 10 SoC key features and specifications: Processor – Quad-core ARM Cortex-A53 MP Core up to 1.5 GHz Logic Core Performance –  1 GHz Logic Density Range – 500K LE – 5.5M LE Embedded Memory – 229 Mb Up to 11,520 18 x 19 Multipliers Up to 144 Transceivers up to 30 Gbps data rate (Chip to Chip) Memory Devices Supported – DDR4 SDRAM @ 1,333 MHz,DDR3 SDRAM @ 1066 MHz, LPDDR3 @ 800 MHz, RLDRAM 3 @ 1200 MHz, QDR IV SRAM @ 1066 MHz, QDR II+ SRAM @ 633 MHz, Hybrid […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments on SiFive Introduces Freedom U500 and E500 Open Source RISC-V SoCs

SiFive Introduces Freedom U500 and E500 Open Source RISC-V SoCs

Open source used to be a software thing, with the hardware design being kept secret for fear of being copied, but companies such as Texas Instruments realized that from a silicon vendor perspective it would make perfect sense to release open source hardware designs with full schematics, Gerber files and SoM, to allow smaller companies and hobbyists, as well as the education market, normally not having the options to go through standard sales channels and the FAE (Field Application Engineer) support, to experiment with the platform and potentially come up with commercial products. That’s exactly what they did with the Beagleboard community, but there’s still an element that’s closed source, albeit documented: the processor itself. But this could change soon, as SiFive, a startup founded by the creators of the free and open RISC-V architecture, has announced two open source SoCs with Freedom U500 processor and Freedom E300 micro-controller. Freedom […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments on OpenCellular is Facebook’s (soon to be) Open Source Wireless Access Platform

OpenCellular is Facebook’s (soon to be) Open Source Wireless Access Platform

A few months after Canonical and Lime Micro LimeSDR open source software defined radio aiming to be used as a development platform, but also as the base for low cost cellular or other wireless base stations, Facebook has announced their own open source wireless access platform with OpenCellular project whose goal is to lower the cost of Internet connectivity in remote areas where the infrastructure does not exist. This is how Marc Zuckerberg summarizes the project: We designed OpenCellular as an open system so anyone — from telecom operators to researchers to entrepreneurs — can build and operate wireless networks in remote places. It’s about the size of a shoe box and can support up to 1,500 people from as far as 10 kilometers away. Along with our solar-powered aircraft Aquila and high-bandwidth laser beams, OpenCellular is the next step on our journey to provide better, more affordable connectivity to […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments on LinkSprite O-board Altera Cyclone IV FPGA Development Board Targets OpenRISC Development

LinkSprite O-board Altera Cyclone IV FPGA Development Board Targets OpenRISC Development

OpenRISC project‘s goal is to create a free and open processor for embedded system that include  RISC instruction set architecture with DSP features, an open source implementations of the architecture, open source development tools and software, and simulators. You normally need FPGA board to emulate the processor before silicon is made available, so LinkSprite designed the O-board powered by Altera Cyclone IV FPGA to help with OpenRISC development and evaluation. O-board specifications: FPGA – Altera Cyclone IV E with 22K LUT (P/N: EP4CE22F17C8N) System Memory – 32MB SDRAM Storage – 1MB SPI FLASH, micro SD slot Connectivity – 1x Fast Ethernet (RJ45) USB – 1x micro USB for OTG HOST/SLAVE, 1 x micro USB for power supply, configuration, 2x UARTs, 2x JTAG… Expansion connectors – 2x 70-pin headers Power Supply – 5V via miro USB Dimensions – 96 x 40 mm The Wiki for the board explained how to get […]

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