I have to admit that one thing I think the folks at Xilinx do really well is their Xcell Journal magazine. I can't think of any other company -- not just FPGA manufacturers, I mean any other semiconductor company -- that publishes anything of this quality.
The print issue is almost like a "coffee table" presentation, but instead of waffling on about stuff like cooking recipes or decorating advice, it's jam packed with interesting articles about programmable devices, tools, tips, tricks, and design and verification techniques. The online version is just as impressive; someone does one heck of a job on the imagery and layout.
I'm proud to say that I've had a couple of articles placed in the Journal myself, and All Programmable Planet blogger Adam Taylor is a regular contributor. (I think Adam's current mission is to have articles in the greatest number of concecutive issues of Xcell Journal of any non-Xilinx author.)
But we digress... The point is that the Autumn 2012 edition of Xcell Journal is currently available for our delectation and delight. Issue 81's cover story looks at how the folks at Xilinx have moved themselves a generation ahead of the competition on the 28nm process node with their All Programmable SoCs, 3D ICs, FPGAs, and their new Vivado Design Suite.
Says Xcell Journal publisher, Mike Santarini:
This issue of Xcell Journal chronicles the hard work that Xilinx began in 2008 to not only offer the industry's most innovative FPGAs on the 28nm process, but to go many steps further to expand the market and definition of programmability by bringing the Zynq-7000 All Programmable SoC and Virtex-7 FPGAs to market. Now that customers have 28nm devices in their hands and these FPGAs are going into new products, Xcell Journal is detailing the innovative ways engineers are using these devices to reduce BOM costs and get innovative products to market faster.
In addition to this quarter's cover story, Xcell Journal issue 81 is packed with informative how-to stories for every technical skill level, including "How to Implement State Machines in Your FPGA" in which author Adam Taylor discusses the different types of state machines and how to best implement them in your designs. (You see -- I told you Adam was on a mission!)
This issue also includes two comprehensive articles describing how to use Xilinx's new Vivado High-Level Synthesis (HLS) tool. In the first Vivado HLS article, Xilinx field application engineers Daniele Bagni and Giulio Corradi explain how they used Vivado HLS in the design of a floating-point PID (proportional integral derivative) controller that was implemented on the Zynq-7000 All Programmable SoC. In the second Vivado HLS article, Xilinx engineer James Hrica shows readers how to use Vivado HLS to implement a floating point design in FPGAs.
And there's much, much more... Xcell Journal is available as a one-click PDF download or in iPad/iPod-compatible ISSUU electronic magazine format. So what are you waiting for? Don't dilly-dally or shilly-shally -- take a peek and then tell me what you think!
Yes true MM. I think I did find some good material which might be helpful to the others members of the community but sadly it's in PDF format so I can't attach it here. If interested send your email id's
Re: "How to Implement State Machines in Your FPGA"
For those of us who have no idea of what TMR is, it's Triple modular redundancy, redundancy using three systems and voting to determine the result (or so says http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triple_modular_redundancy)
Max Maxfield 11/20/2012 10:18:48 AM User Rank Blogger
Re: Well Done
@Geekyasa: I can't think of any other publication like this -- there are some electronic publications that have a similar online presentation mechanizm -- but their content simply isn't there -- it's no good looking "flashy" if you have nothing to say -- the great thing about Xcell Journal is that it looks great AND it has the content
Max Maxfield 11/20/2012 10:16:20 AM User Rank Blogger
Re: Well Done
@Nemos: I'm glad to have introduced you to this -- it's amazing to me that a magazine of this quality is available for free, and every issue (it comes out four times a year) always has interesting "How To" articles and tips and tricks.
But the really important thing is to remember that you heard about it first here on All Programmable Planet (grin)
Re: "How to Implement State Machines in Your FPGA"
Agreed - a nice article on the key points for state machines -- one of the items missing from the article was how one TMR's the FSM registers to allow long term operation without soft-errors impacting the operation of the FPGA. It did cover recovery from illegal states generated by soft errors, but did not cover, going to a hazardous state from a non-hazardous state due to a soft-error, and how to mitigate this with FSM register TMR. This would make an excellent follow on article.
FSM is equivalent to a program written in the usual language for the microcontroller. But none of microcontroller designers intends to utilize FPGA for the similar application because of misunderstanding the features and programming of FSM in FPGA.
If somebody shows a plain and clear method how to program FSM for the proper control application, then probably many microcontroller designers will prefere the FPGA utilization to solve their problems.
Therefore, such articles in the Xcell Journal are always of demand.
Xcell seems to be really interesting . I had a look at it sometime back but didn't have time to dig deep but this timei had a fair share and really enjoyed that bit
MikeSantarini 11/19/2012 7:20:56 PM User Rank Beginner
Wow, thanks for the kind words
Thanks so much for the kind words, Max. My very small team here at Xilinx's Xcell Journal prides itself on producing a top-quality publication. What of course makes it great are the contributors like you and Adam. We are always looking for strong technical content from Xilinx user community, so if you or any of your readers ever have the inkling to write a 2500 to 3500 methodology or how-to piece for Xcell, I'm happy to have it.
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