Embedded module is armed with FPGA flexibility

A novel SBC-level embedded module combines the power of an ARM-based microcontroller with the flexibility of a Spartan-IIE FPGA.

A novel SBC-level embedded module combines the power of an ARM-based microcontroller with the flexibility of a Spartan-IIE FPGA.

The AML91S100E embedded module integrates both an Atmel AT91M42800A and a Xilinx Spartan-IIE 100k-gate FPGA.

The microcontroller is based on an ARM7TDMI core, a popular 32bit RISC CPU with an industry proven instruction set for a large range of applications in the embedded world.

It's rich on-chip peripherals are extended by an external Xilinx Spartan-IIE FPGA connected to the processor's external bus.

This approach let customers benefit from numerous tools, libraries, RTOS and support for ARM-based designs.

The FPGA also offers large resources for I/O extension and customer logic.

The embedded system module is the size of a credit card, and is designed for a wide range of applications, such as mobile platforms, industrial control and measurement, medical equipment.

The onboard 30MIPS microcontroller is based on an ARM7TDMI, a 32bit RISC architecture with dual SPI ports, six timers, two USARTs, 8Kbyte of SRAM, an external bus interface and a JTAG debug port.

This is augmented with 512Kbyte of onboard SRAM and 4Mbyte of Flash memory to provide space for larger applications.

The Xilinx Spartan-IIE FPGA features 100k gates, 1728 logic cells, 384 CLBs and 4Kbyte of block RAM.

The FPGA interfaces to the microcontroller's external bus and can be used to implement a variety of custom IP, such as high-speed communication, data measurement and conversion peripherals.

The module combines a widely used 32bit RISC CPU with the flexibility of a high-density FPGA without the need to synthesise proprietary soft CPU cores.

The multiple I/O standards of the FPGA help integrating the embedded module into real-life systems with minimal effort.

The RTOS-ready embedded module is optimised for eCos.

Software development can be based on the Gnu-ARM toolchain, which is also provided by Trenz Electronic.

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