Product category:
Design and Development Hardware
News Release from: Nallatech | Subject: BenNuey-PC104+
Edited by the Electronicstalk Editorial
Team on 27 October 2003
Design platform embeds FPGAs on PC104+
The BenNuey-PC104+ combines unparalleled off-module I/O, flexible FPGA device support and exceptional bandwidth capabilities for next-generation embedded systems design.
The BenNuey-PC104+, based on the PC/104+ standard, combines unparalleled off-module I/O, flexible FPGA device support and exceptional bandwidth capabilities for next-generation embedded systems design By replacing the traditional ISA connectors in the PC/104+ stack with a new, high-density connector, the BenNuey-PC104+ provides the high levels of interconnectivity required to interface up to 56 million gates of FPGA capacity using the latest Virtex-II FPGAs from Xilinx
This article was originally published on Electronicstalk on 26 Apr 2001 at 8.00am (UK)
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Supplied as standard with two FPGAs, the first is a Virtex-II, up to the 2V8000 device, and is fully available for user applications.
The second FPGA comes preconfigured with firmware for PCI interfacing and board control, resulting in a simplified and accelerated design process.
In addition three Dime-II module slots provide flexible expansion capability that enables developers to construct fully customised embedded systems using standard products.
Further reading
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The Benera is a reconfigurable computing platform that Nallatech claims takes FPGA systems to TeraOPS performance.
FPGA cores aim to beat DSPs at floating point
Nallatech has launched a fully IEEE754-compliant single-precision floating-point core library which now allows Xilinx's FPGAs to exceed the floating-point performance of the latest DSPs.
Entry-level FPGA development protects investment
Nallatech is now shipping its first FPGA development kit: the Strathnuey is based on a single-slot motherboard with Xilinx Virtex-II FPGAs.
The BenNuey-PC104+ is supplied as five PC/104+ form factor cards, starting with the PCI carrier card.
This card hosts the Spartan-II FPGA, configuration boot PROMs, three programmable clock sources and one external clock or a customer-set frequency clock via a crystal socket.
The system controller card is next in the stack, where a choice of a 2V3000, 2V6000 or 2V8000 Virtex-II device is available.
An ultra SCSI style connector allows 66bit of IO to connect directly to the Virtex-II FPGA for interfaces to external components of the system.
A range of buses, from high speed point to point buses, wide pipeline buses or the two combined are also available within the PC/104+ platform.
All buses can act as input, output or bidirectional buses.
The final three boards in the stack provide access to three of the award winning Dime-II module slots.
With each module populated with a BenBlue-II Dime-II module containing two Virtex-II FPGAs, a total of seven FPGAs are available exclusively to the customer, totalling 56 million gates of logic.
The Dime-II expansion capability also provides access to the Virtex-II Pro family and high performance analogue I/O capabilities.
The BenNuey-PC104+ is supplied with a power distribution card which ensures that all the power requirements of the FPGAs in the system are met.
As the PC/104+ connector can supply only a fraction of the current needed in such large systems, Nallatech has provided an additional power connector to each carrier card, which can then be connected to the power distribution card to become the main current path.
"The BenNuey-PC104+ opens up the embedded systems market to the FPGA system designer, allowing the same system architecture to be used from design development through to final production.
Used in conjunction with the BenNuey-PCI motherboard, designers can now develop systems on their desktop PC and then easily port tried and tested designs straight into their embedded solution, reducing risk and time to market", said Dave Bird, Senior Systems Engineer at Nallatech.
The scaleable Dime-II family of products includes Dime-II motherboards, modules, firmware and software, providing a complete systems solution.
The firmware and software associated with the Dime-II hardware products are designed to make FPGA and software application design easy and to simplify integration into existing systems, therefore reducing risk, costs and time to market.
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