Spartan-6 FPGA and Virtex-6 FPGA DSP Development Kits

Xilinx Inc. has three new development kits to furtherextend the ability of digital signal processing developers to easily adoptFPGAs in order to reach the highest levels of signal processing performance,optimize for cost and power and relieve system bottlenecks throughco-processing. As Xilinx Targeted Design Platforms are made possible throughwork with industry-leading distribution, design services, tools and hardwarepartners, the new additions to the Xilinx DSP portfolio give developers thehardware, tools and reference designs to ensure a productive design flow acrossa diverse range of DSP applications.

XilinxTargeted Design Platforms for DSP can easily scale for adding newcapabilities, standards, features and support. Xilinx, customers, partners orother third parties can easily deliver enhanced capabilities to an existingplatform, which increases value for end users and reduces development andinvestment schedules. The DSP Targeted Design Platforms address applicationrequirements across the performance spectrum, including specific focus on peakperformance, price-optimized performance and co-processing acceleration.

The new DSP development kits include a new high-performanceVirtex-6 FPGA DSP kit with integrated A dc/D ac capability, an enhancedlow-cost Spartan-6 FPGA DSP Kit and a Spartan-6 FPGA Co-Processing DSP kit. Allthree kits have integrated AMBA 4 AXI 4 interconnect and IP support.

Virtex-6 FPGA DSPDevelopment Kit with integrated High Speed Data Converters
The new Virtex-6FPGA DSP Development Kit targets peak signal processing performanceapplications and features Texas Instruments' Analog-to-Digital Converters (Adc) and Digital-to-Analog Converters (D ac) on an FMC (FPGA Mezzanine Card)designed by 4DSP that enables customers to tune performance in both the analogand digital domains. The kit includes a targeted reference design that allowsfor full configuration and control of the A dc/D ac from the Virtex-6 FPGA,enabling users to optimize for signal-to-noise ratio loss points, as well asquantization, analog filtering and gain. The kit features AXI4 support toenable easy integration of Xilinx and third party IP with a high performancepoint-to-point interconnect optimized to reduce resource utilization with noimpact on performance. The integration of A dc/D ac technology with Virtex-6devices can save weeks or months of development time.

This DSP platform has broad applications in a wide varietyof markets including aerospace and defense, medical technology, highperformance computing, and next generation wireless communications.

Spartan-6 FPGA DSPDevelopment Kit
For customers looking to add DSP to existing systems whileoptimizing performance at the best possible cost and power consumption, the Spartan-6 FPGA DSP Development kitis an excellent entry level platform with added AXI4 support through the latestversion of the Xilinx ISE Design Suite. The kit's baseboard includes aSpartan-6 LX150T device capable of delivering price optimized DSP performanceand integrated transceivers for high speed system connectivity. In addition toa number of design tutorials, a Digital Up and Digital Down Conversion targetedreference design is supplied that can be used as-is out of the box or modifiedand extended within a familiar design environment of either RTL, (Model-BasedDesign with MATLAB and Simulink) or high-level "C" synthesis toaccelerate development.

Spartan-6 FPGACo-Processing DSP Kit
Xilinx and Avnet Electronics Marketing have developed aco-processing platform that enables software designers to reduce or eliminateapplication bottlenecks using the Spartan-6 FPGA to achieve system accelerations.The Spartan-6 FPGA Co-ProcessingDSP Kit optimizes the key strengths of high performance FPGAs, systemcontrol processing and digital signal processing in one integrated platform.

The Spartan-6 FPGA is ideal for off-loading or"Co-processing" ultra high performance digital signal processing orproviding flexible peripheral expansion options. The kit includes an AXI4Co-Processing reference design to illustrate these performance boosting capabilities.Designers can get started quickly using familiar design environments includedwith the kit.

Pricing andAvailability
The Virtex-6 FPGA DSP kit, which includes the ML605development board, Xilinx ISE System Edition, AXI4 DSP IP, Virtex-6 FPGAtargeted reference design, and Texas Instruments ADC/DAC technology on an FMCdaughter card from 4DSP and is available for $3,995.

The Spartan-6 FPGA DSP kit includes the Avnet ElectronicsMarketing LX150T development board, Xilinx ISE System Edition, AXI4 DSP IP, aSpartan-6 FPGA targeted reference design and is available today for $1,995. TheSpartan-6 FPGA Co-Processing kit is available for $1,695.

All DSP kit targeted reference designs are delivered in RTL,Simulink /System Generator formats to support user choice and to improveease-of-use and productivity. Additionally, tutorials are available forcustomers looking to design using C/C++ using the AutoESL High level synthesisenvironment. Both MathWorks and AutoESL provide development tools forevaluation via their websites. Click here for more information about the Xilinx TargetedDesign Platforms for DSP.