Xilinx takes Zynq-7000 All Programmable SoC to 1 GHz

I just heard from the folks at Xilinx that they've increased the peak processing performance of the Zynq-7000 All Programmable SoC family to 1 GHz!

Also, they are providing smaller form factor packaging to enable higher system performance and programmable systems integration.  They say that these enhancements further expand the system value of many high-end image and graphic processing applications within the medical, Aerospace and Defense (A&D) markets, as well as computationally intensive systems targeting wired and wireless equipment. Xilinx describes Zynq-7000 All Programmable SoCs as "the first tightly integrated hardware, software, and I/O ‘all programmable’ devices in the industry."

“Using Zynq for our measurement devices gives us an extremely compact physical solution as well as an extremely compact system because software and hardware are closer together than ever before,” said Matthias Goetz, hardware project leader at Rohde & Schwarz. “We especially appreciate the great bandwidth performance between the FPGA and industry standard processing sub-system because it accelerates our processing and system development and it allows us to easily move functions from processor to programmable logic when and where needed.”

The new 1 GHz performance benchmark, a 25 percent increase over initial specifications for the two largest Zynq-7000 devices, means the Zynq-7000 family can meet the performance requirements of even more applications than previously anticipated, especially for systems involving heavy-duty image or signal processing where customers need high-end processing capabilities in a single chip.  Customers who would otherwise require multiple chips to achieve their processing requirements can lower BOM while optimizing their applications with better performance and lower power consumption thanks to the tight integration between the ARM® processing sub-system and programmable logic.


“The combination of the processor sub-system running at 1 GHz with the acceleration capability that the tightly coupled programmable logic offers, puts the Zynq-7000 All Programmable SoC on par, and often ahead, of competing dual core solutions with higher processor frequencies, and in many cases at lower power,” said Vidya Rajagopalan, Xilinx’s vice president of processing solutions. “A significant factor behind our ability to take the Zynq-7000 family to 1 GHz is Xilinx’s choice of TSMC’s 28nm HPL process, which we are using for our entire 28nm generation to bring the value of low-power with high-performance to customers.”

The new performance benchmark comes as Xilinx’s All Programmable SoC meets another important milestone with the first Zynq-7045 device shipping to Early Access customers.

“We are very excited to have received our first Zynq-7045 devices and impressed with Xilinx’s execution with the Zynq family.  Having an integrated solution with processor and programmable logic in a single device provides significant advantages over our existing 2 chip design in terms of power reduction, size, and system performance,” said Mike Hodson, OmniTek president. “The added capability of operating the ARM processing system at 1 GHz provides us the headroom needed to run our video processing GUI while simultaneously running several audio codecs and other real time processing functions. The 12.5 GHz transceivers enable us to handle 8 SDI video streams while also supporting 10G Ethernet for video over IP,” said Roger Fawcett, OmniTek managing director.  

“Key to accelerating our development effort was how quickly we were able to port our existing software to Zynq using Xilinx’s software development kit using the familiar industry standard, Eclipse IDE,” added Richard Davies, OmniTek software director.

In addition to its ARM dual-core Cortex-A9 MPCore processing system now boasting 1 GHz maximum frequency, the Zynq-7045 device is the largest member of Xilinx’s family of All Programmable SoCs with more than 5 million equivalent ASIC gates (350k logic cells), sixteen 12.5 Gb/s serial transceivers and 1334 GMACS of peak DSP performance. The Zynq-7045 devices pushes programmable systems integration a step further by providing a hard PCIe Gen2 x8 block, (PCIe x8 Gen3 can be implemented using a soft core in the programmable logic), with high performance SelectIO™ technology supporting up to 1866 Mb/s for additional DDR3 memory interfaces and 1.6 Gb/s for LVDS interfaces in DDR mode.

Smaller form-factor package added for Zynq-7010 device
Xilinx is also announcing the addition of the CLG225 package, a small, 13 x 13mm package for Zynq-7010 devices, supporting programmable system integration for more space constrained applications, such as industrial motor control and imaging, camera-based driver assistance systems, portable medical imaging equipment and a variety of consumer products.

Availability
Zynq-7045 devices are currently shipping to select Early Access customers. Broader availability will begin next quarter. Zynq-7020 devices have been shipping to customers since December 2011. Customers can contact their sales representative to place an order and can start designing their systems with the Xilinx ISE Design Suite 14.2. Xilinx customers can also start developing their software applications with a large selection of operating systems, development tools and development platforms available from Xilinx and its Xilinx Alliance Program members. Please visit www.xilinx.com/zynq for more information.

To learn more about Zynq-7045 devices, watch Xilinx’s newest video, which showcases several functionalities, including hardware acceleration using programmable logic for a video application, PCIe Gen2 data transfers, and a soft CPRI core showing 9.8 Gb/s operations.

---

If you found this article to be of interest, visit Programmable Logic Designline where – in addition to my Max's Cool Beans blogs – you will find the latest and greatest design, technology, product, and news articles with regard to programmable logic devices of every flavor and size (FPGAs, CPLDs, CSSPs, PSoCs...).

Also, you can obtain a highlights update delivered directly to your inbox by signing up for my weekly newsletter – just Click Here to request this newsletter using the Manage Newsletters tab (if you aren't already a member you'll be asked to register, but it's free and painless so don't let that stop you [grin]).