Virtex-6 FPGAs just got a whole lot easier

Product

June 01, 2010

The military embedded signal processing arena, like all embedded technologies, is constantly evolving. Of course, that's code for: "Companies have to spend a lot to keep up with the times."

The military embedded signal processing arena, like all embedded technologies, is constantly “evolving.” Of course, that’s code for: “Companies have to spend a lot to keep up with the times.” Using reprogrammable FPGAs in DSP applications can help companies stay on the cusp of technology by saving some hardware expense, but the programming and development costs associated with FPGAs can be high. That’s undoubtedly why Avnet, Inc. created its Xilinx Virtex-6 FPGA DSP Development Kit. Geared toward military, wireless, instrumentation, and many other compute-intensive applications where high-performance DSP is a must, the kit is part of the Xilinx Targeted Design Platform for DSP. The kit comprises Virtex-6 FPGAs, DSP IP, a scalable development board, cables, documentation, and DSP development tools. The kit is even touted to offer up to a 10x productivity boost.

Meanwhile, the kit’s key offering is its Virtex-6 DSP Targeted Reference Design, which conceptualizes DSP design flows and methodologies for Virtex-6. The Digital Up Converter (DUC)/Digital Down Converter (DDC) Targeted Reference Design gives users the how-to’s for advanced features including time division multiplexing, clock over sampling, and DSP48 slice utilization for high performance. Since it is based on MATLAB and Simulink, the Targeted Reference Design comprises a familiar environment sans RTL. But designers knowledgeable in RTL can also use the Targeted Reference Design’s ISE Design Suite and LogicCore DSP IP. Other highlights include testbenches, design synthesis parameters, and Simulink and RTL design source files.