Tag Archives: FPGA

Xilinx takes Zynq to 11—or more precisely to 1GHz

In the satirical 1984 movie “This is Spinal Tap,” Nigel the guitarist explains why the volume controls on his Marshall amps go to 11 instead of 10 like everyone else’s amps: “If we need that extra push over the cliff,” … Continue reading

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Innovate or die! A high-tech parable from this week’s Time Magazine

Today I was reading this week’s issue of Time Magazine while eating lunch in my secret fish-and-chips restaurant at an undisclosed location in Milpitas, California when I chanced upon a fascinating article about RIM, maker of the BlackBerry. The article’s … Continue reading

Posted in 2.5D, 20nm, 28nm, 3D, EDA360, Silicon Realization, SoC, SoC Realization, System Realization | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Can 2.5D IC assembly really reduce SoC software-development costs? Gabe Moretti thinks it can

Last week on the EDA Café Web site, EDA Editor and Industry Observer Gabe Moretti discussed my DAC blog post on Wally Rhines’ discussion of software’s role in the rising cost of SoC development. (See “Some chip-design reality from Mentor’s … Continue reading

Posted in 2.5D, 3D, EDA360, SoC, SoC Realization, System Realization | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Xilinx Vivado Design Suite brings SoC design style to advanced-node FPGA development

In a complete overhaul of its FPGA design tools, Xilinx has just announced the Vivado Design Suite for its current-generation 7 Series FPGAs (including the Zynq-7000 Extensible Processing Platform) and future FPGA generations. With this design-tool release, Xilinx is acknowledging … Continue reading

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Amazing Friday Video: Xilinx GTZ SerDes transceivers pump 26Gbps/channel through Luxtera silicon photonics module

Setup for this video is pretty complicated so bear with me. The following video shows a Xilinx test chip with “7 Series GTX” transceivers pumping 26Gbps data over four channels through a stand-alone Luxtera “silicon optics” multichannel transceiver module. The … Continue reading

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Software development for SoCs requires “bespoke” software enablement platforms

I’ve always wanted to use the British English word “bespoke” in a blog and Cadence Group Director of Product Marketing for the System Development Suite Frank Schirrmeister has now given me that opportunity with his EDPS forecast on system-level EDA … Continue reading

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3D Thursday: How about a closeup of the Avago MiniPOD optical interconnect on the Altera Optical FPGA?

I just posted a blog entry about the Altera Optical FPGA that pumped 100Gigabit/sec Ethernet (GbE) traffic through a 3D-package-on-package-mounted, 12-channel optical interconnect device from Avago. (See “3D Thursday: Altera adds Avago MicroPOD optical interconnects to FPGA package to handle … Continue reading

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3D Thursday: Altera adds Avago MicroPOD optical interconnects to FPGA package to handle bidirectional 100Gbps Ethernet

This week at the Optical Fibre Communication Conference and Exposition (OFC) in Los Angeles, Altera demonstrated a specially modified Stratix IV FPGA that handled bidirectional 100Gbps Ethernet (100GbE) traffic over a pair of IC-package-mounted Avago MicroPOD multi-lane optical transceivers. The … Continue reading

Posted in 3D, EDA360, Packaging, Silicon Realization, SoC, SoC Realization | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

3D Thursday: How Xilinx developed a 2.5D strategy for making the world’s largest FPGA and what the company might do next with the technology

Two weeks ago, I moderated a 3D IC panel at the 9th International SoC Conference in Newport Beach, California. Last week, I wrote about the first two speakers. (See “3D Thursday: Where can you start with 3D?” and “3D Thursday: … Continue reading

Posted in 2.5D, 28nm, 3D, 65nm, Silicon Realization, SoC, SoC Realization, TSV | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

3D Thursday (early): Steve’s Improbable History of 3D ICs? Six decades of 3D electronic packaging

Last week at the 9th International SoC Conference in Newport Beach, I moderated a 3D IC panel that did a great job of exploring today’s state of the art for 3D IC development. I will be blogging the presentations made … Continue reading

Posted in 28nm, 3D, EDA360, Low Power, Memory, TSV | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Who wants more technical detail on the Altera SoC FPGA? Altera says…you!

After the previous post on the announcement of the Altera SoC FPGA ran in EDA360 Insider—see “The other shoe drops: Altera introduces SoC FPGA, mates ARM Cortex-A9 dual-core processor complex with FPGA fabric”—I heard from people at Altera. They wanted … Continue reading

Posted in 28nm, ARM, Cortex-A9, EDA360, SoC Realization, System Realization | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

How about a quick and easy guide to ARM Cortex processor cores? Got one for you from ARM TechCon 2011

I met with Nandan Nayampally, Director of CPU Product Marketing for the Processor Division at ARM, at ARM TechCon 2011 last week and asked him for a short-form way of understanding the three major classes of 32-bit ARM Cortex processor … Continue reading

Posted in ARM, Cortex-A15, Cortex-A7, Cortex-A9, Silicon Realization, SoC, SoC Realization, System Realization | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

AppliedMicro demos FPGA emulation of multicore server chip based on new 64-bit ARMv8 architecture

OK, well that didn’t take very long at all. Minutes after ARM rolled out the 64-bit ARMv8 architecture announcement at ARM TechCon 2011, AMCC announced that it will be producing a multicore server chip dubbed “X-Gene” based on the new … Continue reading

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3D Thursday: Generation-jumping 2.5D Xilinx Virtex-7 2000T FPGA delivers 1,954,560 logic cells using 6.8 BILLION transistors (UPDATED!)

Tuesday, Xilinx announced that it is shipping Virtex-7 2000T FPGAs to customers. This is one monster FPGA. Its 6.8 billion transistors deliver 1,954,560 logic cells, 21.55 Mbits of distributed SRAM, 2160 DSP slices, 46,512Kbits of block RAM, four PCIe ports, … Continue reading

Posted in 28nm, 3D, 65nm, EDA360, Silicon Realization, SoC, SoC Realization, System Realization | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Generation-jumping 2.5D Xilinx Virtex-7 2000T FPGA delivers 1,954,560 logic cells using 6.8 BILLION transistors (PREVIEW!)

Xilinx announced today that it is shipping Virtex-7 2000T FPGAs to customers. This is one monster FPGA. Its 6.8 billion transistors deliver 1,954,560 logic cells, 21.55 Mbits of distributed SRAM, 2160 DSP slices, 46,512Kbits of block RAM, four PCIe ports, … Continue reading

Posted in 28nm, 3D, 65nm, EDA360, Silicon Realization, SoC, SoC Realization, System Realization, TSV | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

The other shoe drops: Altera introduces SoC FPGA, mates ARM Cortex-A9 dual-core processor complex with FPGA fabric

It’s been more than a year and a half since Xilinx first started to talk publicly about the fusion of processors and FPGAs—a product now known as Zynq. It seemed inevitable that Altera would eventually counter with a competing product … Continue reading

Posted in 28nm, ARM, EDA360, Silicon Realization, SoC, SoC Realization | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

3D Thursday: Do dis-integrated circuits reside in a 3D future? Does anyone (besides me) remember Project Tinkertoy?

I recently ran into this unusual article written by Joe Fjelstad and published on the Global SMT & Packaging Web site. The article discusses the possibility of building hybrid chips using a brick-and-mortar approach as advocated by a joint paper … Continue reading

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Fire lasers! An EDA360, System Realization, and SoC Realization case study with military lasers, processors, and FPGAs

Robert S Grimes’ recently published development story is a good case study in System Realization and SoC Realization. Grimes developed a quad laser control system for a high-power military application and the article he’s published in EETimes—Designing with core-based high-density … Continue reading

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6-Part series of blog posts on 28nm low-power design

Over the past week, I’ve published a 6-part series of blog posts based on the Xilinx White Paper describing how the company developed the low-power aspects of its Series-7 FPGA families. The lessons apply to any team developing ASICs and … Continue reading

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Xilinx 28nm low-power SoC design class, part 6: Vccaux, the “other” power supply

Xilinx wants you to have a quick course in 28nm low-power SoC design… for free. The company recently published a White Paper titled “Lowering Power at 28nm with Xilinx 7 Series FPGAs” but don’t let that title fool you. This … Continue reading

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Xilinx 28nm low-power SoC design class, part 5: Intelligent clock gating

Xilinx wants you to have a quick course in 28nm low-power SoC design… for free. The company recently published a White Paper titled “Lowering Power at 28nm with Xilinx 7 Series FPGAs” but don’t let that title fool you. This … Continue reading

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Xilinx 28nm low-power SoC design class, part 4: Power gating RAMs

Xilinx wants you to have a quick course in 28nm low-power SoC design… for free. The company recently published a White Paper titled “Lowering Power at 28nm with Xilinx 7 Series FPGAs” but don’t let that title fool you. This … Continue reading

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Xilinx 28nm low-power SoC design class, part 3: Optimizing the transistor mix

Xilinx wants you to have a quick course in 28nm low-power SoC design… for free. The company recently published a White Paper titled “Lowering Power at 28nm with Xilinx 7 Series FPGAs” but don’t let that title fool you. This … Continue reading

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Xilinx 28nm low-power SoC design class, part 2: Process Technology

Xilinx wants you to have a quick course in 28nm low-power SoC design… for free. The company recently published a White Paper titled “Lowering Power at 28nm with Xilinx 7 Series FPGAs” but don’t let that title fool you. This … Continue reading

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3D Thursday: 28nm design and 2.5D packaging saves Xilinx a ton of power. You can too even if you’re not designing FPGAs!

Want an advanced course in low-power design alternatives for advanced-process SoC design? Xilinx wants you to have one… for free. The company recently published a White Paper titled “Lowering Power at 28nm with Xilinx 7 Series FPGAs” but don’t let … Continue reading

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