Top five design products in May

1) Adaptive system-on-modules for accelerating innovation

Xilinx has introduced the Kria portfolio of adaptive system-on-modules (SOMs), production-ready small form factor embedded boards that enable rapid deployment in edge-based applications. Coupled with a complete software stack and pre-built, production-grade accelerated applications, Kria adaptive SOMs are a new method of bringing adaptive computing to AI and software developers.

The first product available in the Kria SOM portfolio, the Kria K26 SOM, specifically targets vision AI applications in smart cities and smart factories. The Xilinx SOM roadmap includes a full range of products, from cost-optimised SOMs for size and cost-constrained applications to higher performance modules that will offer developers more real-time compute capability per watt.

2) Trust Platform Design Suite accelerates embedded security

In 2019, Microchip Technology released its Trust Platform for its CryptoAuthentication family, bringing the industry’s first pre-provisioned solutions for hardware-based secure elements to companies of all sizes that want an easy way to implement secure authentication. The company has announced that it is further enhancing this service with the latest enhancements to its Trust Platform Design Suite (TPDS) — its dedicated software platform for device configuration and onboarding to Microchip secure provisioning services for embedded security.

TPDS version 2 (v2) software now enables Microchip partners to add use cases to its rich security solutions onboarding ecosystem, further expanding developers’ already broad options for implementing best-in-class security. It also now includes support for additional security solutions such as the TA100, the first cryptographic companion device for the automotive market.

3) Demo kit enables NFC reader functionality on MCUs

Panthronics has announced an extension of the feature-rich demo kit for its PTX100R NFC Reader IC which will accelerate development of NFC applications on the Renesas Synergy family of 32-bit microcontrollers.

Panthronics has developed an IoT NFC Reader application to run on the Renesas Synergy TB-S3A1, a development board for the Synergy S3A1 series of microcontrollers which are based on a 48MHz Arm Cortex-M4 core. NFC physical and protocol layer operations are performed on a Panthronics PTX100R Evalboard, which connects to the TB-S3A1 board via its Pmod header. The application provides full NFC reader functionality conforming to the standard ISO 14443A/B/F/V specifications.

The PTX100R Evalboard and IoT NFC Reader application are fully integrated into the Synergy Software Package from Renesas and its e2 studio integrated development environment.

4) Cloud hyperscale accelerated with 112G-LR SerDes IP

Cadence Design Systems has unveiled its third-generation 112G long-reach (112G-LR) SerDes IP on TSMC’s N5 process for hyperscale ASICs, artificial intelligence/machine learning (AI/ML) accelerators, and switch fabric systems on chip (SoCs).

The Cadence 112G-LR PAM4 SerDes IP on TSMC’s N5 process delivers the power, performance and area (PPA) efficiency required to build the high-bandwidth and high-reliability products for next-generation cloud data centres. The innovative architecture offers 25% power savings, 40% area reduction and better design margins over the second-generation architecture, satisfying the increasing needs for higher performance and power efficiency in today’s data centres.

5) Reference IP platform enables ultra-powerful SoCs

The success of so many SoCs rests in their ability to process huge amounts of data or signals efficiently turning raw data into knowledge. The latest addition to Sondrel’s family of reference IP platforms is a semi-custom SoC design to which a customer’s IP is added to create a bespoke solution for high performance data processing.

Each SFA 300 reference design has four CPU clusters and several SFA 300s can be ganged together and synchronised via its PCIe interface to create an even more powerful solution. There is also the option for integrating accelerators and/or custom logic to further increase performance and minimise power requirements. The SFA 300 enables fast, tailor-made solutions to be created for processing-intense applications such as 8K video, AI, facial recognition for surveillance, smart factories, blockchain servers and medical data analysis.