Well, I think it's safe to say that things aren't slowing down in "Programmable Space" (where no one can hear you scream). I'm still trying to wrap my brain around the advances Xilinx made when moving to the 28nm technology node. This is where we saw the advent of All Programmable FPGAs, SoCs, and 3D ICs.
Just to remind ourselves, when we say "All Programmable FPGA," we're talking about a state-of-the art, high-capacity, high-performance device that boasts sophisticated programmable digital fabric combined with substantial amounts of on-chip RAM, DSP functions, high-speed interfaces, programmable analog fabric, and... the list goes on.
And when we say "All Programmable SoC," we're talking about the Zynq, which combines a full hard core implementation of a dual ARM Cortex-A9 microcontroller subsystem (running at up to 800MHz and including floating-point engines, on-chip cache, counters, timers, etc.), coupled with a wide range of hard core interface functions (SPI, I2C, CAN, etc.), and a hard core dynamic memory controller, all augmented with a large quantity of traditional programmable fabric and a substantial number of general-purpose input/output (GPIO) pins.
And when we say "All Programmable 3D IC," we're talking about homogeneous 3D devices like the Virtex-7 2000T, which involves four FPGA dice attached to a silicon interposer with ~10,000 ultra-high-speed connections between adjacent dice, and heterogeneous 3D components like the Virtex-7 H580T, which comprises 2X FPGA dice and 1X 8-channel 28Gbps transceiver die in the same package (the forthcoming Virtex-7 H870T will boast 3X FPGA dice and 2X 8-channel 28Gbps transceiver dice in the same package).
Well, the folks at Xilinx have just announced their roadmap toward the 20nm technology node as illustrated in the image below. And, as we see, these devices will be followed in the future by new generations at the 14-16nm FinFET node and then the 10nm process node.
I don't know about you, but my mind is reeling. I can't even imagine what we will be looking at below 20nm, so let's stick with what we know will be coming.
Let's start with the 20nm 8 series All Programmable FPGAs, which will provide 2x the performance, half the power, and 1.5x to 2x the integration capabilities over the current generation.
Max Maxfield 12/10/2012 9:45:51 AM User Rank Blogger
Re: regarding FPGAs,SoCs
Hi Sachin -- I'm not sure what you mean by SoC (check out my blog ASIC ASSP SoC FPGA).
A traditional SoC is a device that is designed and built from the ground up using ASIC fabrication technologies -- it includes one or more processor cores, on-chip memory, and a bunch of other stuff like peripheral and accelerator functions.
Today we also talk about "Programmable SoCs" like the Xilinx Zynq, which combines a hard ARM Cortex-A9 microcontroller with onchip RAM, a host of communications functions, and a bunch of traditional FPGA fabric. These devices are of interest for a lot of applicatiosn liek machien vision, but as Jeremy pointed out a lot of designs can be addressed using more traditional FPGAs (although even today's All Programmable FPGAs tend to have a lot of on-chip RAM and DSP functions and high-speed serial communications cores).
Max Maxfield 12/10/2012 9:40:43 AM User Rank Blogger
Re: regarding FPGAs,SoCs
Hi Sachin -- there's bunch of things to talk about here. First of all, with regard to configuration, you need to peruse and ponder my blogs on the following:
As you will see, some FPGAs are based on Anitifuse technology, others on Flash, and others on SRAM-based configuration cells. These latter one may require an externam memory devuce, but as Jeremy points out you can also load them via JTAG or via an external processor.
JTAG interface allows you to configure the FPGA from your PC from the xilinx ise tools, it requires either a xilinx JTAG platform cable or a USB to JTAG convertor..
sachinhebbar 12/8/2012 9:06:49 AM User Rank Beginner
Re: regarding FPGAs,SoCs
are you talking about UART interface .? or utah interface . I've previously used the UART for tranmn and Rxn. And well thank you for the clarifications i got the point.!
Ther are various ways to configure an fpga, either though a prom which holds the configuration, via JTAG interface or via another device such as a microprocessor or a CPLD
If I understand you correctly you don't have the prom to hold the configuration.
So you have ather options, using the processor in the SoC is one way using something like u-boot.
Is it just that you cannot buy the proms?
sachinhebbar 12/8/2012 8:41:00 AM User Rank Beginner
Re: regarding FPGAs,SoCs
I agree with you But I'm starting up a career b/w u can see my bio on APP as well i've designed a filter on FPGAs but the problem is without the PROMs we cannot store the data and build the modules either in case if we use contollers we can store the data and its cost efficient though. I'm totally confused of whcih area i can choose..? The FPGAs are for particular tast where the application or product is confiddential. am i rite..?
Yes I can explain it to you sachinhebbar, the vast majority of people using programable logic are using FPGAs because they contain all the functionality that they require, it's actually only a small subset of programable logic users who are using SoC devices, there are far more applications which simply need a simple programable device. I have worked on one project which used a separate processor and an FPGA and would have benefited from using a SoC device.
I hope they are not teaching you to use SoC for every design
sachinhebbar 12/8/2012 7:54:18 AM User Rank Beginner
Re: regarding FPGAs,SoCs
Hello Max nowadays peoples are moving towards SoCs rather than the FPGAs. FPGAs have the demerit of EPROMs or PROMs in the previous versions. Then whats the use of an FPGA even both the contollers and this are meant to be a particular application or task. Whatever we can build on FPGAs we can build it in controllers also. can you just explain me..?
Max, so I have given you a hint what the community needs from you (Grin). For most of the common peoples 3D technology means visualizing the image in different angles. Now a day's 3D televisions/screens are so common and may interest to know more about it. Hope your 3D works will be available soon.
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