 The tremendous success of Acromag's PMC modules with Virtex-4 FPGAs demonstrates the market's enthusiastic acceptance of reconfigurable FPGA solutions for high-performance embedded computing applications. A user-configurable FPGA module's low cost and ease of implementation makes it possible for end-users and OEMs to take advantage of FPGA processing power to customize and deploy systems with short development time frames. Now, Acromag PMCs with Virtex-5 FPGAs are ready to tackle the ever-increasing demands for higher performance.
Meeting higher performance requirements
System requirements continue to evolve, and the new demands placed on already powerful COTS FPGA-based PMC modules now dictate more speed, more efficiency, and more memory. Improvements in throughput and methods to maintain compatibility with previous system investments are also of critical importance.
To meet these new challenges, Acromag is further expanding their family of FPGA products with the introduction of several new COTS-ready PMC modules. Acromag's new models employ powerful Xilinx Virtex-5 FPGAs with a variety of computing capacities from the FPGA's LXT and SXT series which are optimized for either high-performance logic or DSP tasks and feature lower-power configurations. Acromag logic models include the PMC-VLX85, PMC-VLX110 and PMC-VLX155, with 85k to 155k logic cells. For DSP, Acromag offers the PMC-VSX95 with 95k logic cells and 640 DSP48E slices.
A familiar upgrade path
Using Acromag’s Virtex-4 PMC products as the performance baseline, the new Virtex-5 PMC FPGA modules enable more demanding applications to be developed on an identically interfaced, super-charged platform, and at a very reasonable price. This incremental approach is designed to maintain hardware interface similarity which requires only minimal changes in logic development for the customer to jump up to a number of key performance benefits. Most notably, the PCI Bus has been upgraded to PCI-X r3.0 compliance supporting 32-bit and 64-bit transfers at up to 133MHz. This enhancement results in a ten-fold DMA throughput increase to over 600MB/second. On-board clocking is also upgraded to include both 200MHz and 133MHz crystals, plus there are now eight rear I/O and three front I/O external clock lines available. Any or all of these lines can be used as clock sources for the twelve digital clock managers, each of which can support a differently clocked simultaneous logic execution thread within the Virtex-5 FPGA. And, dual-ported SRAM speeds improve to better than 600MB/second bursts, yielding a 10X DMA transfer rate increase compared to Acromag Virtex-4 FPGA models.
Expanded memory
As the processing efficiency (6-bit LUTs, 25 x 18-bit MACs), processing speed (now 550MHz), simultaneous logic stream support (12 DCMs), and data throughput levels increased, the memory required upgrading as well. Along with a doubling of FPGA Block RAM, the on-board dual-ported SRAM now has 256k X 64-bit buffers, compared to 256k X 32-bit memory on the Virtex-4 FPGA PMC modules. The PMC is also equipped with 32M x 32-bit DDR2 SDRAM. Additionally, the standard memory capacity can be upgraded even further to meet future demands. Please contact an Acromag applications engineer to discuss your memory expansion requirements and our optional solutions in detail.
Flexible I/O interface
Interfacing I/O signals between the continuously evolving outside world and your control system requires great flexibility. For users of Acromag’s Virtex-4 FPGA modules, the new Virtex-5 FPGA products provide an I/O connectivity migration path to higher performance with downward compatibility. System developers can continue to use the rear I/O connector just as they do now with the Virtex-4 FPGA modules, however two new global clock pins help improve synchronization in demanding applications. The front I/O connector and its available AXM I/O extension modules remain 100% compatible. The plug-in AXM modules provide an optional interface for RS422, TTL, LVDS, analog input and other signal types.
Software support options
As in the past, the new Virtex-5 FPGA PMC Modules continue to support FPGA configuration over the PCI Bus, via the JTAG port, and from flash memory as best suits your needs. Software support also remains the same with an Engineering Design Kit and OS support libraries (Linux, VxWorks, QNX, Windows). And of course, telephone and online technical support is available to help shorten your development cycle and ensure a successful Acromag installation.
Acromag is dedicated to satisfying the needs of the high-performance real-time embedded computing community. Innovative products such as the new Virtex-5 FPGA modules are the result of listening to issues facing our customers and being attentive to their concerns. If you need any assistance with an existing or upcoming I/O project, please don’t hesitate to contact one of our Regional Sales Managers. With more than 50 years of industrial I/O experience and a broad line of bus-board solutions, you can depend on Acromag to help you succeed in your next challenge.
We look forward to speaking with you by phone, online, or in person at an upcoming Real Time Show in your area! See our website for the schedule.
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