Expandable SBC can be targeted to specific applications

“We are proud to be the first to bring the power of the Zynq MPSoC to the Standard 3U VPX+FMC format” said Panou Pabouctsidis, CTO, PanaTeQ. “The power and flexibility of our VPX3-ZU1 open a new world of possibilities in the Military/COTS and other ultra-high-end real-time computing applications.”

In a single device, the Zynq UltraScale+ integrates a Quad-core 1.5GHz 32/64-bit ARM Cortex-A53 based Application Processing Unit (APU), a Dual-core ARM Cortex-R5 based Real-Time Processing Unit (RPU), an ARM MALI-400 based Graphic Processing Unit (GPU) and a large Programmable Logic (PL) Array. The device also includes on-chip memory, external memory interfaces and a rich set of peripheral connectivity interfaces.

The VPX3-ZU1 includes a FPGA Mezzanine Card (FMC) connector allowing the board to be targeted to specific applications by fitting it with any compatible front end I/O interfaces, such as high speed Analogue to Digital Converters, Video Adapters, or high speed networking ports. The FMC site is compliant to the Vita 57.1 HPC standard and includes 90 Single Ended IO (45 Differential Pairs) and 10 Multi Gigabit Transceivers.

The multiple Cores and Programmable Logic can operate together to resolve today’s and tomorrow’s most demanding embedded computing challenges, in applications ranging from Software Defined Radio, Image Processing, Target Detection, EW/ISR, advanced Multi-Axes Motors controller, Multi-Gigabit Ethernet Communications, to LIDAR/RADAR/SONAR. Using Xilinx’s powerful SDSoC Development Environment, the User Application Code can easily be partitioned between the Zynq’s available Cores and the Programmable Logic. Algorithms compiled to run in Hardware in the Programmable Logic can result in 10x to 100x speed improvement over Software execution.

The VPX3-ZU1 comes equipped with to 2 or 4GB 64-bit of DDR4-2400 RAM with ECC dedicated to the ARM Cores, and 512MB or 1GB of 16-bit of DDR4-2400 RAM dedicated to the Programmable Logic. Tight, high speed coupling of the RAM to the Programmable logic makes the board suitable for data streaming applications such as video CODEC and real-time signal/image processing application. In addition, 64GB of soldered eMMC managed NAND Flash is available for local, permanent data storage.

The board can act as a Single Board Computer thanks to its on-board PCIe Gen2 Switch. In this configuration, powerful systems can be built by adding only an enclosure and a power supply.

When the VPX3-ZU1 is used as a System Controller, it can manage up to eight 3U OpenVPX slots with a PCIe x1 Gen2 link per slot. There is no need to add any SBC in the VPX rack, improving the system’s Size, Weight, Power and Cost (SWaP-C).

All of the Zynq Ultrascale+ peripherals are routed to the VPX backplane. These include: two ETH 1000Base-T, two USB 3.0/2.0, two USB 2.0, one SATA 3.1, two CAN-2.0B, two RS-232/422/485, four MGT, twenty GPIO, and a Video Out Display Port 1.2. A rear transition module is available from PanaTeQ to bring these signals to standard connectors.

The board can be ordered with different versions of the Zynq UltraScale+ family of devices and fitted either with 2.5 or 5GB RAM. The board is also available in air or conduction cooled versions.

The air cooled PanaTeQ System Development Kit VPX3-ZU1-PSDK is available for the developers and includes a lab chassis with 3-slots OpenVPX CEN03-15-2-9 backplane, the VPX3-ZU1-B1-AC and RTM-ZU1-A1 boards, a Linux BSP, the PanateQ FPGA Design Kit (PAN-FDK) and cables.