Product category:
Design and Development Hardware
News Release from: Hardi Electronics | Subject: HAPS
Edited by the Electronicstalk Editorial
Team on 18 February 2004
More scope for ASIC prototyping system
Three new daughterboards add capabilities such as Ethernet, USB and analogue video to the HAPS modular ASIC prototyping system.
Three new daughterboards add capabilities such as Ethernet, USB and analogue video to the HAPS modular ASIC prototyping system providing real-time speed, real-time debugging and full ASIC functionality for ASIC prototyping designers The boards are available now and will be shown for the first time at the DATE Conference (Design Automation and Test) this week in Paris, France
This article was originally published on Electronicstalk on 1 Jun 2007 at 8.00am (UK)
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The first member in the new HAPS-50 family is HAPS-52 which has a capacity of 4 million ASIC gates.
Until now, designers who needed functions such as these were required to develop their own addon boards.
Hardi's new daughterboards will allow customers to immediately start transforming ASIC designs to FPGAs without the need to design additional hardware.
The combined Ethernet/USB board, called the ETH-USB-1x1, dramatically enhances HAPS debug and configuration capabilities.
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Two new series of third-generation motherboards bring the performance of the Hardi ASIC Prototyping System (HAPS) for multi-million-gate ASICs to smaller designs.
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Hardi Electronics has used the ARM Developer's Conference to release a new series of motherboards it claims feature unmatched performance and capacity.
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The latest motherboard in the HAPS family gives customers access to multigigabit serial links, embedded PowerPC processors and more than 1600 pairs of LVDS signals.
The board is equipped with a PowerPC, embedded in a Xilinx Virtex II Pro, running Linux.
A second board, called AVID-1x1, adds analogue video capabilities to HAPS.
Video signals in all common formats can both be generated and decoded.
Finally, the CONF-1x1 is a stand-alone configuration board for any Xilinx FPGA-based board.
A detachable CompactFlash card holds up to eight different designs.
"The Ethernet/USB board solves the problem of getting test and debug data onto the HAPS system with high speed, using a simple interface", stated Jonas Nilsson, Technical Manager at Hardi Electronics.
"Designers can even debug over the Internet.
For example, a HAPS system in a lab in India can be controlled from an office in Europe or the United States.
Because this board is a complete Linux development system for small applications, we are certain that our customers will create many additional innovative ways to use it".
Regarding the new analogue video board, Nilsson added: "As digital media is becoming more widespread in all kinds of consumer products, the need to prototype multimedia ASICs is also growing.
Our new analogue video board complements our existing digital video board by handling all analogue broadcast standards, including HDTV".
The ETH-USB-1x1 contains 100Mbit/s Ethernet I/O and USB 2.0 communication, as well as Flash memory and SDRAM.
A Virtex-II Pro device running Linux on the built-in PowerPC processor handles these devices.
The Virtex-II Pro is connected to the HAPS motherboard with 119 signals, which allows fast communication with the emulated design.
The ETH-USB-1x1 board allows debugging and control of a HAPS system via an Ethernet or USB 2.0 connection.
In addition, it enables a PC or workstation to retrieve debug information from the design and also to download input data, as well as RAM contents.
It even allows engineers to reconfigure the complete HAPS system by sending commands and bit files over the Ethernet or USB connection.
Designers can use the default Virtex-II Pro configuration and Linux kernel, or reconfigure the FPGA to streamline the interface to a particular application.
The 50 x 70mm module can also be used as a stand-alone Linux platform or development board.
The AVID-1x1 makes HAPS an ideal platform for ASIC designers working with multimedia applications such as digital cameras, mobile phones, DVD players and PDAs.
The board generates and accepts analogue video signals in common broadcast formats (NTSC/Pal/Secam, composite, S-video, RGB) and is capable of resolutions up to HDTV and UXGA.
The AVID-1x1 board also contains a six-channel audio codec based on the AC97 standard.
The CONF-1x1 can configure Xilinx devices on any JTAG-capable Xilinx board with designs stored on a detachable CompactFlash card.
The CompactFlash card holds up to eight designs, any of which can be downloaded to the Xilinx devices with a simple press of a button.
For example, the CONF-1x1 can be used as a nonvolatile configuration store for the HAPS FPGA-2x3 board.
It also contains power convertors capable of generating the different voltages needed by an FPGA from a single power source.
If used in a HAPS system, the emulated design can also be given access to the contents of the CompactFlash card, allowing storage of application data on the card.
The ETH-USB-1x1, AVID-1x1 and CONF-1x1 are available today.
Pricing starts at $1995, $1250 and $1120 respectively in the USA.
European pricing is Eur 1595, Eur 995 and Eur 895.
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