Balancing master

The real acid test for a product comes– at the latest– when you use it yourself in a project.This is exactly what happened with the engineering company imt when it developed a trade fair demo in just four weeks. The idea of a self-balancing robot came to fruition quite quickly, with tried-and-tested procedures and the latest technologies and tools being used in the development of the idea.

A Mars AX3 FPGA module from FPGA specialists Enclustra serves as the basis for the robot. This module significantly reduced the amount of needed hardware development work, as only a very simple base board had to be developed with the power electronics and sensor systems. The detailed documentation, the VHDL reference design, the 3D CAD model and the PCB footprint – that are freely available for all Enclustra modules – helped to ensure that the PCB worked right away.

It took very little time to choose the system partition and the programming tool: With the DATAFLOW Studio , that is developed by imt, the implementation of the system was a breeze. The DATAFLOW Studio contains a RISC-V soft processor which takes care of control and regulation of the entire robot. All sensors and actuators were able to be quickly and simply connected to this high-performance open source processor via the FPGA logic.

The project was only able to be successfully carried out and the robot got up and running in such a short period of time by combining these technologies – and of course thanks to the extensive knowledge of the imt engineers.

The Mars ST3 base board is here

The Mars ST3 is finally here – the base board for all applications that need a display. In addition to conventional standard interfaces, it offers HDMI, Mini DisplayPort as well as Mobile Industry Processor Interfaces (MIPI) for directly connecting a camera. When combined with an SoC module such as the Enclustra Mars XU3, this makes this combination the preferred platform for all applications that require an operating system and a high-resolution GUI.

Order your Mars ST3 now.

The Mercury+ XU9 is in production

The latest Xilinx® Zynq® UltraScale™+ MPSoC module from Enclustra is now in production. The Mercury+ XU9 is designed for extremely high memory bandwidth and large data volume – which we will test extensively in September, when the first assembled modules have arrived. Thanks to the two 64-bit DDR4 SDRAM banks (PS & PL), the module achieves a memory bandwidth of up to 38.4 GByte/sec. Twenty MGTs with transfer rates of up to 15 Gbit/sec ensure the rapid transfer of data to and from the module.

In addition to six ARM® cores, the 74 × 54 mm small modules feature a Mali™ 400MP2 GPU, 16 GByte eMMC flash memory, USB 3.0 and 178 user I/Os. The EV variants of the Mercury+ XU9 also come equipped with a H.264 / H.265 video codec.

If you want to get your hands on a Mercury+ XU9 as soon as possible, you should apply for our Early Access Program.

Meet us at the Embedded Computing Conference 2019

Edge computing, artificial intelligence, RISC-V, FPGAs and SOMs are just some of the topics in the spotlight at the Embedded Computing Conference on September 3^rd 2019 in Winterthur/Switzerland. Like every year, a great deal of expertise is showcased in over 40 talks at the most important embedded event in Switzerland. An exhibition is being held in parallel to the talks. Enclustra will once again present their latest products and innovations.

Artificial intelligence is currently revolutionising countless applications at a rapid pace. In its talk entitled «Implementing artificial intelligence in FPGAs», Enclustra reveals how to introduce this future-oriented technology on a standard industrial platform.

We look forward to welcoming you in Winterthur.

FPGA modules give it their all

The world’s currently most successful Formula Student Electric team is using Enclustra modules in their motor inverters for the second season in a row. In 2018, the Zurich-based AMZ Team came out on top against more than 170 competitors, and is targeting this result again this year.

A detailed article in the Circuit Cellar magazine provides technical details about the setup and the technology used in the cars.

Enclustra wishes the AMZ Team all the best and great success on the racetrack!