Xilinx : Zynq-7000 Extensible Processing Platform

Is this the new trend for 2011 - FPGA and Micro Processor going hand in hand?
This time its ARM and Xilinx.

The Zynq™-7000 family is Xilinx's first Extensible Processing Platform (EPP). This new class of product combines an industry-standard ARM® dual-core Cortex™-A9 MPCore™ processing system with Xilinx unified 28nm architecture. This processor-centric architecture offers the flexibility and scalability of an FPGA combined with ASIC-like performance and power and the ease of use of an ASSP.

The four devices of the Zynq-7000 EPP family allow designers to target cost sensitive as well as high-performance applications from a single platform using industry-standard tools. The tight integration of the processing system with programmable logic allows designers to build accelerators and peripherals to speed key functions by up to 10x. ARM architecture and ecosystem maximizes productivity and eases development for software and hardware developers.


http://www.xilinx.com/technology/roadmap/zynq7000/features.htm

SOURCE - Xilinx : Zynq-7000 Extensible Processing Platform

A Match Made in Silicon Heaven?

A configurable Intel Atom processor with an on-package Altera FPGA

I stumbled across this article the other day and it got me thinking about what a big partnership this is and what impact it will have on the embedded world.

E600 brings everything onboard for the platform, including PCI-E for using the E600 in a multitude of different capacities. Either bring your own PCH or build one yourself - Intel already showed examples of Realtek, OKI, and ST Microelectronics on stage. If you're just building a desktop, Intel has a fairly standard platform controller hub called the EG20T for control like ethernet, SATA and USB. Intel really hopes that their embedded Atom platform will bring cost of system integration way down.

Ok So its a new ATOM CPU so what?

When designing a microprocessor you have two options. For very complex designs you have a bunch of engineers come up with an architecture. They then spend countless hours, days, months, eons designing it, and doing layout and performance optimization. Photolithographic masks are made and handed off to a fab that produces the silicon on wafers. This is a great approach for microprocessors that have high complexity, performance and volume demands. If you have a simpler design and want to get it to market cheaper, there's another option: a FPGA.

A field programmable gate array is exactly what it sounds like, a whole bunch of gates on a die that can be programmed in the field. An FPGA can be made to function like pretty much whatever microprocessor design you program it to be. You shave off the initial manufacturing costs as you don't need to make expensive masks. FPGAs are often used in emulating larger microprocessor designs.

As Intel tries to take the Atom into the embedded space it may run into some customers that want to pair Atom with custom hardware. Intel could simply make a version of Atom for every single market vertical, however that would incur a significant cost overhead. 

Instead, in the first half of 2011 Intel will introduce the Stellarton processor. It's a configurable Intel Atom processor with an on-package Altera FPGA.

The theory sounds great but in practice this could be tricky device to integrate - don't you think?

SOURCE - AnandTech , SLASHGEAR, Intel

ZX81: Small black box of computing desire

The Sinclair ZX81 was small, black with only 1K of memory, but 30 years ago it helped to spark a generation of programming wizards.

Packing a heady 1KB of RAM, you would have needed more than 50,000 of them to run Word or iTunes, but the ZX81 changed everything.

It didn't do colour, it didn't do sound, it didn't sync with your trendy Swap Shop style telephone, it didn't even have an off switch. But it brought computers into the home, over a million of them, and created a generation of software developers.

Before, computers had been giant expensive machines used by corporations and scientists - today, they are tiny machines made by giant corporations, with the power to make the miraculous routine. But in the gap between the two stood the ZX81.

SOURCE - BBC News - ZX81: Small black box of computing desire

Embedded World - 2011

The embedded world Exhibition&Conference is the world´s biggest exhibition of its kind and the meeting-place of the international embedded community. Embedded technologies are in action everywhere -whether in the car, data and telecommunication systems, industrial and consumer electronics, military systems or aerospace.

The embedded world Exhibition&Conference is the top get-together for the international embedded community. The exhibition set another record in 2010 with 730 exhibiting companies, and more than 18,000 trade visitors used the opportunity to obtain a comprehensive picture of the latest embedded technology trends.

Will you be going?
Are you already there?
What are you looking for at EW2011?

Visit the Exhibition Website - Embedded World