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Posted on by Debashis Das - 4 Comments on Altera’s 7nm Agilex 3 SoC FPGA features Cortex-A55 cores, AI Tensor Block, DSP, 10 GbE, and more.

Altera’s 7nm Agilex 3 SoC FPGA features Cortex-A55 cores, AI Tensor Block, DSP, 10 GbE, and more.

Altera Agilex 3 AI SoC FPGA

Altera, an independent subsidiary of Intel, has launched the Altera Agilex 3 SoC FPGA lineup built on Intel’s 7nm technology. According to Altera, these FPGAs prioritize cost and power efficiency while maintaining essential performance. Key features include an integrated dual-core Arm Cortex A55 processor, AI capabilities within the FPGA fabric (tensor blocks and AI-optimized DSP sections), enhanced security, 25K–135K logic elements, 12.5 Gbps transceivers, LPDDR4 support, and a 38% lower power consumption versus competing FPGAs. Built on the Hyperflex architecture, it offers nearly double the performance compared to previous-generation Cyclone V FPGAs. These features make this device useful for manufacturing, surveillance, medical, test and measurement, and edge computing applications. Altera’s Agilex 3 AI SoC FPGA specifications Device Variants B-Series – No definite information is available C-Series – A3C025, A3C050, A3C065, A3C100, A3C135 SoC FPGAs Hard Processing System (HPS) – Dual-core 64-bit Arm Cortex-A55 up to 800 MHz that supports secure […]

Posted on by Sayantan Nandy - 12 Comments on Qualcomm Snapdragon X Plus 8-core – A 4 GHz octa-core processor for entry-level Copilot+ PCs and laptops

Qualcomm Snapdragon X Plus 8-core – A 4 GHz octa-core processor for entry-level Copilot+ PCs and laptops

Snapdragon X Plus

Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X line of ARM-based processors is designed for Windows laptops, offering CPUs capable of competing with Intel and AMD processors. The Snapdragon X Plus (10 core) and Snapdragon X Elite, announced last year, include high-performance NPUs for AI processing. Qualcomm has now introduced the entry-level Snapdragon X Plus 8-core processor, targeting the $700 to $900 laptop market instead of the ~$1,300+ asked for something like the Microsoft Surface Laptop 15. It reduces CPU and graphics performance while maintaining the same AI features as the higher-end models. The Qualcomm Snapdragon X Plus lineup includes two octa-core processors: the X1P-46-100 and X1P-42-100, both built on a 4nm process. These processors come with eight Oryon CPU cores, clocked at 4GHz and 3.4GHz respectively, and are equipped with the Qualcomm Hexagon NPU, delivering 45 TOPS for AI tasks like Copilot+ PC. They also integrate Qualcomm Adreno GPUs offering 2.1 TFLOPS for the […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments on Efinix introduces the low-power Topaz RISC-V SoC FPGA family for “high-volume, mass-market applications”

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

Efinix Topaz RISC-V SoC FPGA

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 […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 15 Comments on Rockchip RK3582 is a cost-down version of RK3588S with two Cortex-A76 cores, four Cortex-A55 cores, no GPU

Rockchip RK3582 is a cost-down version of RK3588S with two Cortex-A76 cores, four Cortex-A55 cores, no GPU

Rockchip RK3582

Rockchip RK3582 hexa-core SoC is pin-to-pin compatible with the popular Rockchip RK3588S octa-core Cortex-A76/A55 SoC, but only features two Cortex-A76 cores, a 5 TOPS NPU (instead of 6 TOPS) and does not come with a 3D GPU. I was first made aware of the Rockchip RK3582 in October 2023 when I was sent a photo of a board allegedly for a TV box, but while the RK3582 still features a 4K video decoder, the lack of a 3D GPU could make it problematic with 3D accelerated user interface. We now have more details with Radxa having released the datasheet and a few more interesting details. Rockchip RK3582 specifications: Hexa-core CPU – 2x Cortex-A76 and 4x Cortex-A55 cores in dynamIQ configuration (frequencies are still shown as TBD in the datasheet) GPU No 3D GPU 2D graphics engine up to 8192×8192 source, 4096×4096 destination AI Accelerator – 5 TOPS NPU 3.0 (Neural […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments on Efinix Titanium Ti375 FPGA offers quad-core hardened RISC-V block, PCIe Gen 4, 10GbE

Efinix Titanium Ti375 FPGA offers quad-core hardened RISC-V block, PCIe Gen 4, 10GbE

Efinix Titanium Ti375 RISC-V FPGA SoC

Efinix Titanium Ti375 SoC combines high-density, low-power Quantum compute fabric with a quad-core hardened 32-bit RISC-V block and features a LPDDR4 DRAM controller, a MIPI D-PHY for displays or cameras, and 16 Gbps transceivers enabling PCIe Gen 4 and 10GbE interfaces. The Titanium Ti375 also comes with 370K logic elements, 1.344 DSP blocks, 2,688 10-Kbit SRAM blocks, and 27,53 Mbits embedded memory, as well as DSP blocks optimized for computing and AI workloads, and XLR (eXchangeable Logic and Routing) cells for logic and routing. Efinix Titanium Ti375 specifications: FPGA compute fabric 370,137 logic elements (LEs) 362,880 eXchangeable Logic and Routing (XLR) cells 27,53 Mbits embedded memory 2,688 10-Kbit SRAM blocks 1,344 embedded DSP blocks for multiplication, addition, subtraction, accumulation, and up to 15-bit variable-right-shifting 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 32-bit quad-core hardened RISC-V block […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments on SiFive unveils P870 high-performance core, discusses future of RISC-V

SiFive unveils P870 high-performance core, discusses future of RISC-V

SiFive Hot Chips 2023 x86 vs Arm vs RISC-V

SiFive has just given a presentation at Hot Chips 2023 introducing the new high-performance P870 RISC-V core and its automotive equivalent the P870-A core, plus discussing RISC-V in general, its previous generation RISC-V cores, and what to expect going forward. SiFive has not officially announced the P870 and P870-A cores just yet, so most of the information we have from the English-speaking Internet is from ServeTheHome who managed to get some presentation slides, but this is also corroborated by various Chinese sources on Baidu and Guokr. SiFive P870 and P870-A The P870 and P870-A RISC-V cores are new cores from the SiFive Performance family compatible with the RISC-V RVA23 profile and succeeding the SiFive P670 core. The SpecINT2k6 benchmark reports 17 points per GHz on the P870 compared to 13.2 points per GHz for the P670 (comparable to the Arm Cortex-A78) or about a 29% higher performance at the same […]

Posted on by Saumitra Jagdale - No Comments on DBM10 AI SoC is optimized for battery-powered voice and sensor processing

DBM10 AI SoC is optimized for battery-powered voice and sensor processing

DBM10 AI Devkit

DSP Group announced DBM10 a low-power AI/ML-enabled dual-core SoC. The SoC is equipped with a DSP (Digital Signal Processor) and a dedicated nNetLite NN (Neural Network) processor that improves voice and sensor processing and ensures low-power consumption when working with sufficient-sized neural networks. Key Specifications of NN Processor Form factor: ~4 mm2  Ultra-low-power inference consumption – ~500 µW (typical) for voice NN algorithms Runs Hello Edge 30-word detection model @ 1 MHz (125 MHz available) Allows porting of large models (10s of megabytes) without significant accuracy loss using model optimization and compression. DBM10 AI SoC uses the combined functioning of machine learning, voice, and sensor parameters. This includes voice trigger (VT), voice authentication (VA), voice command (VC), noise reduction (NR), acoustic echo cancellation (AEC), sound event detection (SED), proximity and gesture detection, sensor data processing, and equalization. The DBM10 is suitable for battery-operated devices like smartphones, tablets, and wearables. It […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments on RISC-V hardware & software ecosystem highlights in 2020

RISC-V hardware & software ecosystem highlights in 2020

RISC-V hardware software 2020

The RISC-V Summit 2020 is currently taking place virtually, and RISC-V International, a non-profit corporation aiming to drive the adoption and implementation of the RISC-V instruction set architecture (ISA), took the occasion to remind us of the growth of the ISA both in terms of commercial adaption, education, and other projects. Calista Redmond, CEO of RISC-V International, detailed the growth in memberships: This year, our technical community has grown 66 percent to more than 2,300 individuals in our more than 50 technical and special interest groups. We’re seeing increased market momentum of RISC-V cores, SoCs, developer boards, software and tools across computing from embedded to enterprise … We’re proud of our growing global membership, which has more than doubled in the last year to 1,000 total members, including 222 organizations.” RISC-V also launched the RISC-V Exchange now listing over 124 RISC-V cores, SoCs, and developer boards, as well as 129 […]

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