PCI Express to Wishbone Bridge

We were asked to migrate the SPI slave interfaces of an existing FPGA design to PCIe interfaces, providing massively more bandwidth, while maintaining the internal FPGA Wishbone communication infrastructure and as much as possible of the embedded software controlling the SPI masters. To do this, we replaced the SPI slave interfaces with a multi-function PCIe endpoint with attached Wishbone masters, and mapped the new FPGA design to an Altera Cyclone V GX device.

On the embedded software side, the low-level SPI driver was replaced by a custom PCIe driver, emulating the same behavior. This development provided our customer with a smooth transition to the latest FPGA technology, and delivers the performance required for next-generation systems.

Click through to read more about some of our customer projects.

The first SO-DIMM Zynq UltraScale+ Module is on its way

We've just got our hands on the PCBs for the Mars XU3 Xilinx Zynq UltraScale+ module, have shipped them off to assembly, and are eager to get them back in a few weeks. The XU3 comes in the extremely compact and well-established SO-DIMM form factor, and is optimized for applications that require the greatest processing power possible in the smallest of spaces, without having to make any compromises when it comes to functionality.

On offer are up to 154,000 systems logic cells, 108 user I/Os, 6 ARM^® processors, a GPU, up to 4 GByte of ultra-fast DDR4 SDRAM, 64 MByte QSPI flash memory, 4 GByte eMMC flash memory and Gigabit Ethernet and USB 2.0/3.0 ports, all on a surface area measuring just 67.6 × 30 mm. Additionally, in order to ensure that the design-in process is as simple as possible, the module only requires a single 3.3 V feed for the power supply.

Meet us at Embedded Eorld 2017

From the 14^th to the 16^th of March 2017, the Nuremburg Exhibition Centre will be dedicated to all things related to embedded systems. Enclustra will once again be present at Embedded World, with two stands, together with AntMicro, the specialist for embedded software. Mark the dates on your calendar and come visit us at Stand 121 in Hall 4A or Stand 101 in Hall 1 at the world's largest trade fair and congress dedicated to embedded technologies.

New year, new announcements

We’re ready to get our teeth stuck into 2017, and we hope you are too. To get the ball rolling, we’re happy to announce that the development of the Mars MA3, our first Altera Cyclone V SoC module in the compact Mars form factor, is now underway.

The Mars MA3 system-on-chip (SoC) module combines Altera's Cyclone V SoC device with fast DDR3L SDRAM, quad SPI flash, a Gigabit Ethernet PHY and an RTC, and thus forms a complete and powerful embedded processing system. The SO-DIMM form factor allows space-saving hardware designs, as well as quick and simple integration of the module into the target application.

The icing on the cake: we offer a comprehensive design-in support and Linux board support package in the form of the Enclustra build environment. Nice.

Click through to learn more.

The show goes on

Last week we were part of the ESC conference in San Jose; it was our final exhibition of 11 this year in which we presented our modules. Phew! They’ve been fun, but we’re also pleased that the Christmas break is right around the corner. It has been a demanding year of exhibiting, but a successful one, and we’ve met a lot of interesting people.

At ESC we showcased our new Mercury+ AA1 module, based on the Altera Arria 10 SoC, and the Mercury+ XU1, which is currently available with a Xilinx UltraScale+ ZU9EG ES2 engineering sample. The XU1 is a powerful beast, with up to 600,000 system logic cells, 6 ARM cores and an integrated Mali-400 MP2 graphics accelerator.

Xilinx was amongst the many visitors who stopped by at our stand at ESC - check out their blog and read about the XU1: Enclustra’s 74x54mm Mercury+ XU1 SOM is only a bit larger than its on-board Zynq UltraScale+ MPSoC