Xilinx Announces Development Platform for Building Dual Processor Embedded Systems Using Virtex-5 FXT FPGAs

Xilinx Announces Development Platform for Building Dual Processor Embedded Systems Using Virtex-5 FXT FPGAs

Virtex-5 FXT FPGA ML510 Embedded Development Platform Reduces Development Time For High-Performance PowerPC440 Driven Systems

SAN JOSE, Calif., Oct. 29 /PRNewswire/ — Xilinx, Inc. (Nasdaq: XLNX) today announced its Virtex-5 FXT FPGA ML510 Embedded Development Platform for developing high-performance embedded systems driven by dual processors. Built around the Virtex-5 FXT FPGA platform with its two integrated Power PC(R) 440 processors and supported by Linux and VxWorks operating systems, the new development platform provides software and hardware design teams with unprecedented levels of flexibility and computational capacity.

Coupled with a range of reference designs and the Xilinx Embedded Development Kit (EDK) of award-winning development tools, configuration wizards and IP, the ML510 Embedded Development Platform provides a comprehensive design environment for building systems that use two processors for performing dedicated distributed functions.

“The ML510 development platform allowed us to quickly migrate our existing PowerPC405 image processing applications to take advantage of the higher performance Virtex-5 FXT device,” said David Pellerin, CTO of Impulse Accelerated Technologies. “With the ML510 and Xilinx EDK tools, we were able to accelerate the design, debugging and troubleshooting of our PowerPC440 embedded system and easily access the advanced features of the Virtex-5 FX130T device such as the expanded APU interface, the crossbar with multi-channel DMA, and dedicated DDR2 interface.”

The ML510 Embedded Development Platform includes a complete range of peripheral, interface and software support, including support for industry standard Linux and VxWorks operating systems. In addition to the dual IBM PowerPC440 processor cores, the board’s Virtex-5 FX130T device provides more than 130,000 logic cells, over 10,700 kb of block RAM and RocketIO(TM) GTX serial transceivers that operate at up to 6.5Gb/sec. Also, many board level cabling interfaces are predefined, allowing rapid development and verification so that system manufacturers can quickly deploy systems to the field. Xilinx offers the ML510 in an ATX (Advanced Technology Extended) form factor that can be readily expanded using the convenient daughter card expansion card interface. An ATX rack is available for purchase that can be used in conjunction with the ML510 development platform for rack mounted systems for efficient packaging and deployment.

“From running multiple operating systems to driving individual tasks, the Virtex-5 FX130T device with its two PowerPC440 processors can help designers to overcome size, weight, area and power challenges for a diverse range of embedded applications including video imaging, secure communications, and network processing,” said Tim Erjavec, director, Platform Solutions and Services Marketing at Xilinx. “The ML510 Embedded Development Platform provides design teams targeting the Virtex-5 FXT device with a versatile hardware platform for rapid prototyping and verification of their systems.”

Pricing and Availability

The ML510 embedded development platform is available now, part number HW- V5-ML510-G, for $3,100. The rack mount add-on is available for $449. It is compatible with previous generation Virtex-family development systems, the ML310 and ML 410 development platforms. More information can be found at: http://www.xilinx.com/products/devkits/HW-V5-ML510-G.htm

About the Virtex-5 FXT FPGA Platform

The Virtex-5 FXT platform is optimized for high-performance embedded processing, digital signal processing (DSP) and high-speed serial connectivity to offer the ultimate in system integration. The Virtex-5 FXT platform is one of five domain-optimized FPGA platforms of the 65nm Virtex-5 family that first began shipping in 2006. Comprised of five devices, the Virtex-5 FXT platform includes the first FPGAs to feature industry-standard PowerPC(R) 440 processor blocks. It also includes RocketIO GTX transceivers capable of 6.5Gbps performance and DSP48E slices that deliver more than 190 GMAC’s of performance.

About Xilinx

Xilinx, Inc. (Nasdaq: XLNX) is the worldwide leader of programmable logic solutions. Additional information about Xilinx is available at http://www.xilinx.com.