How to Choose an FPGA Board
Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) are very exciting and fun to use application platforms. They replace the use of ASICs or Application Specifics ICs. Programmable logic has been around for a long time already, but FPGAs are more advanced and powerful. This is why they are becoming the right solution for most embedded applications. Some of the main functions and features of FPGAs are they are faster, they can improve density, they have larger memory resources and more flexible interfaces.
There are different features certain users need when choosing an FPGA. This is why FPGA board sellers find it difficult to know what costumers need, because designers still don’t know what exactly these users need from the board. New product definition needs a deeper knowledge of available features of the device to provide for the needed FPGA trends for these applications. When choosing an FPGA board, you must know what features you need for the certain application you will be using it for.
You can choose from the latest family of FPGAs the Xilinx FPGA.in choosing an FPGA board consider the performance, signal integrity, memory, speed, and power consumption. In selecting the right FPGA for the applications needed here are some of the Xilinx FPGA, their features and tradeoffs:
1. The Xilinx Virtex-4 Family. Xilinx divided the Virtex-4 product into three groups to target each requirement. Its memory is much more flexible and has different forms. The distributed memory is for LUTs, single and dual port RAMs, FIFOs and shift register. These are distributed accordingly for larger memory structures, larger circular delay memory buffers, 18 Kbit block RAMs for deep FIFOs and bigger single or dual port RAMs.
2. The Xtreme DSP. It provides for the demand of the users, which is for a more powerful signal processing structure. It can operate at a speed of 500 MHz and it can spread the results of DSP slices as fast as 48-bit precision. It performs as a miniature DSP processor.
3. The XCITE Active Termination. It can reduce external discrete resistors by providing programmable termination. It also adjusts termination impedance to follow changes in drive level caused by processes, temperature and device variations.
4. The Clock Management. It allows different parts of FPGA to operate at different clock frequencies to coordinate with other clock references. It can be synchronized precisely with data sources and destinations.
5. The Resource Allocation. This is a much stronger Virtex-4 device allocation. It also has a large memory. It has supervisory functions, faster speed and better communication.
6. The Embedded System Board Design. This can let you perform real-time DSP tasks needed in applications like data acquisition, software radio, secure communications and radar systems.
7. The Software Radio Board Example. This product encompasses most of the features of many basic features of radio software.
Choosing the right FPGA, you can consider the FX family or Virtex-4 devices because they feature all the needed board attributes. These are the best choices for this product. Because FPGA devices have common footprints with its family members, you can substitute parts to provide for a range of processing, cost, and power requirements for the board.