FPGAs

To simplify and speed up the certification and licensing process for FPGAs which must meet standards such as IEC 61508, Embedded Office has adapted its µC/OS-MPU Cert-Kit to Altera’s Cyclone V SoCs using the ARM Cortex-A9 processor, and moulded this into a starter kit.

Working together through the OpenPOWER Foundation, Altera and IBM have developed the industry’s first FPGA-based acceleration platform that coherently connects an FPGA to a POWER8 CPU leveraging IBM’s Coherent Accelerator Processor Interface (CAPI). The platform was unveiled at the SuperComputing Exhibition and Conference in New Orleans (Nov 16-21).

VadaTech has announced a FPGA in the AMC (Advanced Mezzanine Card) form factor that utilises the Xilinx Zynq all programmable SoC. The AMC518 comes in a single module, mid-size AMC that allows an FMC per VITA 57 to be plugged into the carrier.

For the first time, Reflex CES will be exhibiting it’s FPGA boards at electronica 2014, from 11th to 14th November in Munich. The company will also showcase other products ranging from FMC daughter boards to high-speed computers, including SOMs.

Approximately one-third of embedded designers surveyed on the adoption and use of FPGAs for embedded applications responded that they perceived FPGAs as too expensive to use in their designs. However, a look at the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) at the system level reveals that Altera FPGAs offer competitive and flexible alternatives to discrete MCU/DSP/ASSP products.

New data security features have been added to enhance Microsemi ‘s new ultra secure SmartFusion2 SoC FPGAs and IGLOO2 FPGAs. The devices feature licensed, patent-protected DPA resistance from Cryptographic Research, active tamper detectors including an active mesh, secure flash key storage, unique key generation through Intrinsic ID’s Physically Unclonable Function (PUF) Quiddikey-Flex, and full NIST-certified crypto accelerators.

Citizen Watch are integrating Lattice Semiconductor's iCE40 FPGAs into it's Eco-Drive Satellite Wave F100 wristwatch. To enable the watch to display the correct time, the FPGA picks up the precise-time information from the input data of the GPS satellite signal receiver and generates control signals.

Featuring TSMC’s 55nm embedded flash process technology, the MAX 10 FPGAs have been introduced by Altera. TSMC's technology enables the non-volatile FPGAs to provide dual-configuration flash, analogue and embedded processing capabilities in a small-form-factor, low-cost, instant-on programmable logic device.

ARM TechCon—Altera Corporation and ARM today announced a long-term agreement to expand their strategic partnership for best-in-class embedded software development tools for SoC FPGAs. In 2012, Altera and ARM announced the creation of the ARM Development Studio 5 (DS-5) Altera Edition, which pioneered the invention of FPGA-Adaptive Debugging for SoC FPGAs. 

Lattice Semiconductor has revealed that its popular MachXO3L family of FPGAs are now available in four tiny packages as small as 2.5x2.5mm. According to the manufacturer, the FPGAs offer the lowest cost per I/O in the industry with WLCSP (Wafer-Level Chip-Scale) and caBGA (Chip-Array Ball Grid Array) packages providing up to 335 I/O in a 17x17mm package.