A new kit developed by Avnet evaluates the low-power, small-form-factor Xilinx Artix-7 50T FPGA for high-volume applications in the industrial control, medical, and test-and-measurement industries. From evaluating industrial Ethernet protocols to integrating multiple sensors to running a Linux-based Web server, the customizable evaluation board includes the peripherals and expansion interfaces required to create an embedded processor system on a small footprint. Features include a Xilinx XC7A50-T1FTG256C FPGA, 256 Mbytes of DDR3 SDRAM, 32 Mbytes of QSPI flash, and 32 kbytes of I2C EEPROM. I/O includes dual 10/100 Ethernet interfaces; six Digilent-compatible Pmod interfaces enabling 48 user I/O pins (routed as differential pairs; paired to fit dual-wide Pmods); a USB-UART interface; and 16 AMS inputs (12 connected to Pmods and four for the power-monitor circuit); and a JTAG programming/configuration port. Also incorporated are 512 bytes of EEPROM with SHA-256 authentication engine, 10 user LEDs, eight user DIP switches, five user pushbutton switches, and a 200-MHz LVCMOS oscillator (system clock). Applications range from embedded controllers, networking/communications, and industrial Ethernet to general-purpose prototyping, I/O expansion and sensor fusion.
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