Product Review
Achronix is shipping 22nm Speedster22i FPGAs
Clive Maxfield2/25/2013 5:17 PM EST
The folks at Achronix Semiconductor Corporation say that they've begun shipping their industry-leading Speedster22i HD1000 FPGAs to customers. These devices are targeted at a number of high bandwidth applications, including telecommunications, networking, high-performance computing, and so forth.
Built on Intel's advanced 22nm, 3-D Tri-Gate transistor technology, Speedster22i HD devices are said to consume half the power and are half the cost of competitive high end FPGAs for the targeted high bandwidth applications noted above. They are the only FPGAs with a full suite of hardened interface IP including 10/40/100G Ethernet, 100Gbps Interlaken, PCI Express Gen1/2/3 and 2.133 Gbps DDR3 controllers.
Consider the image below. A large proportion of the programmable fabric in the standard FPGA (on the bottom) is consumed implementing functions like 10/40/100G Ethernet and Interlaken. By comparison, these functions are implemented as hard IP in Speedster22i devices, thereby consuming less silicon real estate and power, and freeing up programmable logic resources for the designers' own functions.
The Speedster22i HD1000 is the first member of the Speedster22i family. It includes over 1 million effective LUTs, consisting of 700,000 programmable LUTs and 300,000 LUTs of additional functionality provided by the fixed-function hardened IP. The device also integrates 86 Mbits of RAM, 960 programmable IO and 64 lanes of 12.75 Gbps SerDes.
"Speedster22i FPGAs address the high bandwidth and low latency requirements of high performance wireline, test and HPC applications," said Robert Blake, President and CEO of Achronix. "The embedded hard IP blocks in the Speedster22i FPGAs not only simplify the design of high bandwidth applications, but also dramatically reduce the power and cost of the end solution."
Speedster 22i FPGAs built on the most advanced process technology
Speedster22i devices are built in the United States using Intel's production 22-nm process technology. Intel's 22nm Tri-Gate transistors deliver higher performance and lower power consumption than traditional planar technology. Speedster22i FPGAs leverage Intel's advanced 22nm process technology together with a rich set of communications-focused hard IPs to deliver FPGAs with the highest performance, lowest power and lowest cost for target high bandwidth applications.
The advantages of implementing Speedster22i family in Intel's advanced 22nm, 3-D Tri-Gate transistor technology are substantial, not the least that this gives Achronix a significant – and accelerating – technology advantage as is illustrated by the following image:
The baseline (in blue at the bottom) is when a new process technology becomes available from Intel. The green and yellow columns (representing TSMC and GlobalFoundries, respectively) indicate the time (in quarters) before that process becomes available from the other foundries.
Furthermore, the HD1000 incorporates substantial silicon-proven IP from Intel, dramatically improving product capabilities, while reducing design risk. Additionally, Achronix leverages Intel's vertically integrated foundry offerings (wafer fabrication, device packaging, testing, and production device qualification) that enable Achronix to focus on designing targeted FPGA solutions for high bandwidth applications.
"We are very excited to have Achronix as our first Intel Custom Foundry customer." said Sunit Rikhi, Vice President, Technology & Manufacturing Group, General Manager, IntelCustom Foundry. "The delivery of the first Speedster 22i FPGAs is an important milestone in a multi-year strategic relationship with Achronix."
HD1000 development kit
The Speedster22i HD1000 development kit includes a PCI Express form-factor, HD1000 development board, ACE software, programming pod and power supply. The kit supports development and prototyping of 100G Ethernet, Interlaken, PCI Express, DDR3 and SerDes. Customers can use the development board in a PC chassis using the PCI Express interface, or it can be used stand alone. Achronix also supplies a number of reference designs that demonstrate the capabilities of hardened interface protocols.
Product availability
Engineering samples of the Speedster22i HD1000 are available today. The HD1000 development kit is available for purchase immediately at a price of $13,000, including ACE development software. The next device, Speedster22i HD680P is currently supported in ACE and will be available in Q2 2013. The HD1500 is the largest member of the Speedster22i family and will include 28Gbps SerDes. The HD1500 will be available at the end 2013.
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]).
Built on Intel's advanced 22nm, 3-D Tri-Gate transistor technology, Speedster22i HD devices are said to consume half the power and are half the cost of competitive high end FPGAs for the targeted high bandwidth applications noted above. They are the only FPGAs with a full suite of hardened interface IP including 10/40/100G Ethernet, 100Gbps Interlaken, PCI Express Gen1/2/3 and 2.133 Gbps DDR3 controllers.
Consider the image below. A large proportion of the programmable fabric in the standard FPGA (on the bottom) is consumed implementing functions like 10/40/100G Ethernet and Interlaken. By comparison, these functions are implemented as hard IP in Speedster22i devices, thereby consuming less silicon real estate and power, and freeing up programmable logic resources for the designers' own functions.
The Speedster22i HD1000 is the first member of the Speedster22i family. It includes over 1 million effective LUTs, consisting of 700,000 programmable LUTs and 300,000 LUTs of additional functionality provided by the fixed-function hardened IP. The device also integrates 86 Mbits of RAM, 960 programmable IO and 64 lanes of 12.75 Gbps SerDes.
"Speedster22i FPGAs address the high bandwidth and low latency requirements of high performance wireline, test and HPC applications," said Robert Blake, President and CEO of Achronix. "The embedded hard IP blocks in the Speedster22i FPGAs not only simplify the design of high bandwidth applications, but also dramatically reduce the power and cost of the end solution."
Speedster 22i FPGAs built on the most advanced process technology
Speedster22i devices are built in the United States using Intel's production 22-nm process technology. Intel's 22nm Tri-Gate transistors deliver higher performance and lower power consumption than traditional planar technology. Speedster22i FPGAs leverage Intel's advanced 22nm process technology together with a rich set of communications-focused hard IPs to deliver FPGAs with the highest performance, lowest power and lowest cost for target high bandwidth applications.
The advantages of implementing Speedster22i family in Intel's advanced 22nm, 3-D Tri-Gate transistor technology are substantial, not the least that this gives Achronix a significant – and accelerating – technology advantage as is illustrated by the following image:
(Source: Achronix market estimates.
Bank of America. Merrill Lynch, Semico)
Bank of America. Merrill Lynch, Semico)
The baseline (in blue at the bottom) is when a new process technology becomes available from Intel. The green and yellow columns (representing TSMC and GlobalFoundries, respectively) indicate the time (in quarters) before that process becomes available from the other foundries.
Furthermore, the HD1000 incorporates substantial silicon-proven IP from Intel, dramatically improving product capabilities, while reducing design risk. Additionally, Achronix leverages Intel's vertically integrated foundry offerings (wafer fabrication, device packaging, testing, and production device qualification) that enable Achronix to focus on designing targeted FPGA solutions for high bandwidth applications.
"We are very excited to have Achronix as our first Intel Custom Foundry customer." said Sunit Rikhi, Vice President, Technology & Manufacturing Group, General Manager, IntelCustom Foundry. "The delivery of the first Speedster 22i FPGAs is an important milestone in a multi-year strategic relationship with Achronix."
HD1000 development kit
The Speedster22i HD1000 development kit includes a PCI Express form-factor, HD1000 development board, ACE software, programming pod and power supply. The kit supports development and prototyping of 100G Ethernet, Interlaken, PCI Express, DDR3 and SerDes. Customers can use the development board in a PC chassis using the PCI Express interface, or it can be used stand alone. Achronix also supplies a number of reference designs that demonstrate the capabilities of hardened interface protocols.
Product availability
Engineering samples of the Speedster22i HD1000 are available today. The HD1000 development kit is available for purchase immediately at a price of $13,000, including ACE development software. The next device, Speedster22i HD680P is currently supported in ACE and will be available in Q2 2013. The HD1500 is the largest member of the Speedster22i family and will include 28Gbps SerDes. The HD1500 will be available at the end 2013.
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]).
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