Computer family integrated with SDSoC development environment

The Xilinx SDSoC development environment has a full, system optimising C/C++ compiler that allows system and software engineers to take full advantage of the speed increase offered by running processing intensive algorithms on the Programmable Logic (PL) of the Zynq Z7030. The new development flow offers a familiar software development environment using an Eclipse-based GUI, programming in C/C++ and debugging from the ARM-A9 CPUs, called the Processing System (PS). SDSoC offers profiling, estimation and hardware/software event traces to help developers optimise the system performance while seamlessly generating the full Zynq SoC system with hardware accelerated IPs, data motion network and software BSPs.

“The combination of Sundance’s EMC² boards and the Xilinx SDSoC development environment is another significant step forward for embedded systems design, enabling systems engineers to take advantage of the Zynq SoC’s combination of a popular ARM-A9 CPU and the flexible and fast I/O associated with FPGA technology,” said Flemming Christensen, Managing Director of Sundance Multiprocessor Technology.

“While the Zynq SoC provides potential for implementing a powerful hardware accelerated system, it requires many disciplines across hardware, system and software engineers. The SDSoC offers the benefit of being able to gain performance by seamlessly moving algorithms into FPGA fabric from C/C++ applications, a game-changer for programmable embedded systems. Not only will the SDSoC environment significantly shorten the time to market for Zynq designs, it also opens the door to a new class of users who have been in traditional SoC domains developing primarily in software.”

“The EMC²-Z7030, combined with the Xilinx SDSoC development environment, offers a total, industrial grade and deployment ready PC/104 embedded computing solution for varied applications that can benefit from the flexible concept of the Zynq SoC with integrated dual-core ARM-A9 and Kintex-7 FPGA fabric,” added Mark Jensen, Director of Corporate Software Strategy, Xilinx. “The addition of a VITA57.1 FMC-LPC makes it easy to migrate R&D efforts from Xilinx’s development breadboard to a fully rugged environment, be it air, land, sea or space. The SDSoC development environment and Sundance EMC² board bundle is an ideal combination that is especially attractive for embedded systems design.”

The EMC²-Z7030 benefits from the PC/104 stackable concept that allows multiple EMC² boards to be integrated into a multi-processing ARM/FPGA system, using PCI Express for interconnection between each SBC. The concept is being developed by Sundance as part of $100m industry wide EU R&D project into Embedded Multi-Core Systems for Mixed Criticality.