Board-level products support latest FPGAs

Vmetro is supporting the Xilinx Virtex-5 family of FPGAs with the release of two board-level products designed around this revolutionary new device family.

Vmetro is supporting the Xilinx Virtex-5 family of FPGAs with the release of two board-level products designed around this revolutionary new device family.

The products, based on open standard form-factors including PMC and PCI, are targeted for deployed embedded applications as well as development platforms.

Vmetro's first two products are based on the Xilinx LX50 and LX110 FPGAs, the first Virtex-5 platforms now available.

For PCI based development platforms, Vmetro's DEV-FPGA05, based on the Xilinx LX50 Virtex-5 FPGA, will be bundled with a software support package to allow Virtex-5 applications to be evaluated and developed at low cost.

For deeply embedded applications, typically found in medical imaging or aerospace and defence systems, the PMC-FPGA05D PMC module with a Virtex-5 LX110 will be available.

Architecturally, both the PMC and PCI based products share a common structure to maximise the performance of the FPGAs.

This includes up to three 4Mbyte banks of QDR II SRAM and two 64Mbyte banks of DDR2 SDRAM connected directly to the Virtex-5 FPGA.

The memory architecture means that large datasets, such as entire video images, FFTs and DSP vector arrays can be stored locally for fast processing and data buffering.

SDRAM provides valuable high-volume storage.

256Mbit Flash is also provided for turn-key FPGA configuration to simplify application deployment.

Fast data I/O is provided by directly coupling I/O modules and parallel interfaces, including PCI-X, to help stream data straight to the FPGA without bottlenecks being introduced.

I/O modules already developed include parallel LVDS, CameraLink and RS422.

Additional custom modules can be designed by development engineers or Vmetro.

The early adoption of the Virtex-5 FPGA family enables customers to deploy new high gate density, high performance solutions with lower power.

Thus, Vmetro can provide more computing and throughput in a given space.

Next generation applications typically requiring these capabilities include software defined radio, signal intelligence and real-time imaging.

"Our next generation real-time data recording and image processing applications come with stringent performance, power and cost requirements".

"This requires a high performance SoC solution with better integration of high-speed data I/O streams, faster memory bandwidth and low power consumption", said Thomas Nygaard, CTO at Vmetro.

"Engaging with Xilinx early on their Virtex-5 family has provided us with unprecedented performance and power advantages, coupled with the flexibility to adapt to our customers' evolving specifications".

"We are actively developing end-user solutions based on the Virtex-5 LX platform FPGA family that will help establish our leadership in the aerospace and defence marketplace".

"We engaged with a select group of early access customers that had specific performance, power or capability requirements that could only be addressed by our Virtex-5 FPGA family", said Per Holmberg, Director of Programmable Digital Systems Marketing at Xilinx.

"Vmetro pushed the limits of performance and capabilities and provided valuable feedback that helped shape our next generation product line".

"Their early success with Virtex-5 is further enforcement that our domain optimised strategy delivers the best mix of features and capabilities tuned to customer needs".

The PMC-FPGA05D and DEV-FPGA05 products will be available from 1st September 2006 with single unit pricing from US $5995.

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