PRO DESIGN introduces FPGA SoC and IP prototyping platform
Munich, Germany. PRO DESIGN, a supplier of FPGA-based prototyping systems, today announced the launch of its three new proFPGA Zynq UltraScale+ FPGA modules, which offer an embedded processing platform for the efficient development and verification of SoC and IP designs.
The proFPGA product family is a complete, scalable, and modular multi-FPGA prototyping solution, which fulfills highest needs in the area of FPGA-based ASIC prototyping. The new members of this flexible system concept are the proFPGA Zynq UltraScale+ ZU11EG, ZU17EG, and ZU19EG FPGA modules, which can easily be mounted on the proFPGA uno, duo, or quad motherboards and mixed with other proFPGA FPGA modules like Virtex-7, Virtex UltraScale, Virtex UltraScale+, or Kintex UltraScale modules. The proFPGA Zynq UltraScale+ FPGA modules address customers who require a complete embedded processing platform for high performance SoC prototyping, IP verification, and early software development. The innovative system concept and technologies offer flexibility and reusability for several projects, which guarantees the best return on investment.
Equipped with the latest Xilinx Zynq UltraScale+ ZU11EG, ZU17EG, or ZU19EG FPGAs, which combine FPGA logic with two ARM multi-core processors (quad-core ARM Cortex-A53 and Dual-core ARM Cortex-R5) and several on-board interfaces like USB 3.0, Gigabit Ethernet, SATA, Display Port, and a debug interface, the new FPGA modules offer a complete embedded processing platform. Further, the boards already include an on-board DDR4 SODIMM module and a single quad SPI flash.
Nearly all SoC and ASIC designs contain some types of ARM processors. Instead of implementing these ARM cores into the FPGA and occupying important FPGA resources, the user can take the proFPGA Zynq UltraScale+ module, which already has two embedded ARM multicore processors with verified interfaces and memory. In addition, the new FPGA module offers a direct ARM debug interface from which the user can benefit by using the proven ARM debug environment in combination with the proFPGA prototyping system and by putting the focus on the actual verification of his design.
The new modules offer a total of up to five extension sites with 531 standard I/Os and 16 multigigabit transceivers (MGTs) for extending the board with standard or user specific extension boards, or for easily connecting it to other proFPGA FPGA modules to expand the capacity. The well-designed board is optimized and trimmed to guarantee signal integrity and high performance. It allows a maximum point-to-point speed of up to 1.2 Gb/s over the standard FPGA I/Os and up to 16.3 Gb/s over the MGTs.
“In today’s ASIC and SoC designs you almost find always multicore processors. The verification of these in combination with user designs and required firmware becomes essential and extremely complex. We are proud that with our new proFPGA Zynq UltraScale+ FPGA modules we can provide a complete embedded processing platform at an early stage of the development process, which helps our customers to master this challenging task,” said Gunnar Scholl, CEO of PRO DESIGN.
The proFPGA Zynq UltraScale+ embedded processing platform comes with the proFPGA Builder software, which provides an extensive set of features, like advanced clock management, integrated self-tests and performance tests, automatic board detection, I/O voltage programming, system scan and safety mechanisms, and remote system configuration, which only takes seconds.
PRO DESIGN will demonstrate the proFPGA Zynq UltraScale+ based FPGA modules at DVCon from February 26 to 28 in San Jose, CA.