XtremeDSP starter kit for low-cost DSP systems using Spartan-3A DSP FPGAs

The folks at Xilinx have announced the immediate availability of the XtremeDSP Starter Kit – Spartan-3A DSP FPGA Edition. The new kit delivers a complete solution for cost-sensitive DSP application development such as portable medical equipment, low-cost wireless infrastructure, flat panel displays and many other applications that require DSP performance along with low cost and low power.

This new starter kit features the low-cost Spartan-3A DSP 1800 FPGA, which offers more than 20 billion multiply-accumulates per second (GMACS) for under $30. At the heart of the Spartan-3A DSP FPGA architecture is the DSP48A slice that enables designers to implement many independent arithmetic functions. The folks at Xilinx claim that the Spartan-3A DSP FPGA family delivers 25 percent lower dynamic power and 1.5× faster DSP performance for less cost than competing FPGAs.

XtremeDSP Starter Kit – Spartan-3A DSP FPGA Edition.
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Also included is System Generator for DSP, which enables the use of The Mathworks popular MATLAB and Simulink modeling environments when designing with Xilinx FPGAs. The new starter kit is part of the Xilinx XtremeDSP solution that also includes the XtremeDSP Video Starter Kit – Spartan-3A DSP FPGA Edition, which was announced at the same time.

The board includes a VGA port for developing video processing algorithms, an Ethernet 10/100/1000 PHY, as well as an RS-232 port for simple communications with a remote console. It also comes equipped with 128 Mb × 32-bit DDR2 SDRAM, 16Mx8 Parallel/BPI configuration flash, and 64 Mb of SPI configuration/storage flash. Also supported is a full JTAG interface for configuration and debug, as well as a module connector, cables and power connector for the System ACE tool. For adding further functionality, the development platform includes an expansion slot to enable designers to integrate add-on cards available from Xilinx distributors.

Pricing and availability
The XtremeDSP Starter Kit – Spartan-3A DSP FPGA Edition (HW-SD1800A-DSP-SK-SG-UNI-G-PROMO) is available now for $495. For more information, please visit www.xilinx.com/s3adspstarterkit.