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3U VPX FPGA processor board

Curtiss-Wright Controls Embedded Computing has announced a flexible, multi-card 3U VPX solution for rugged deployed embedded FPGA processing applications. With the interoperability of its 3U VPX FPE320 FPGA processor card, 3U VPX VPX3-450 FPGA processor and 3U VPX VPX3-127 SBC (single board computer) running Wind River’s VxWorks, the new solution delivers flexibility for addressing high-performance 3U VPX systems applications. Using this solution, system integrators can utilise large Xilinx Virtex-5 FPGAs in a small form factor embedded system powered with a high performance Power Architecture general purpose processor. The FPE320 supports Virtex-5 LXT, SXT, or FXT devices. With its onboard FMC expansion site (FPGA Mezzanine Card: ANSI/VITA 57), the FPE320 supports optimised FPGA I/O using Curtiss-Wright’s range of FMC ADC51x series cards to bring in high speed I/O such as ADCs (analogue to digital converters). The VPX3-450 FPGA processor combines the computing power of a Xilinx Virtex-5 FPGA with the high-performance floating-point capabilities of the Freescale 8640D dual-core Power Architecture processor.

The VPX3-127 features a Freescale MPD8640D processor and can be expanded through its onboard PMC/XMC expansion site. The VPX3-127 uses PCI Express to connect to the FPE320 and/or to the VX. All three boards are available in a combined development chassis that includes FPE320 and/or VPX3-450 cards and a VPX3-127 card. The FPE320 is a 3U VPX FPGA processor board that incorporates the Xilinx Virtex-5 FPGAs with an FMC mezzanine site. Providing a large amount of resources in a small, rugged form factor, the FPE320 is a suitable FPGA platform for 3U systems that need to acquire analogue and other high-speed I/O or need a large FPGA processor. The FPE320 features: Xilinx Virtex-5 3U VPX processor card with FMC site; supports Xilinx Virtex-5 SX240T, LX220T/LX330T, and FX200T FPGAs; FMC (VITA 57) mezzanine site for I/O; DDR2 SDRAM and QDRII SRAM memory resources; four x4 high-speed serial interconnects to the backplane for PCI Express, Aurora or Serial RapidIO; additional low-speed I/Os to the backplane; FusionXF development kit for HDL development; VxWorks 6.x and Linux support; 3U VPX with .8inch pitch; and air and conduction cooled options.

The VPX3-450 is a 3U VPX FPGA processor board that incorporates the Xilinx Virtex-5 FPGAs with an on-board PMC/XMC mezzanine site. With large DDR2 SDRAM and fast QDR-II+ SRAM blocks, and several on-board and off-board high-speed serial links, the VXP3-450 FPGA node provide a balanced mix of processing capabilities with memory, inter-FPGA and off-board bandwidths. The VPX3-450 features 3U VPX-REDI; one Xilinx Virtex-5 Platform FPGA; 512Mbyte DDR2 SDRAM attached to the FPGA, 2.2Gbyte/s peak bandwidth; 18Mbyte QDR-II+ SRAM attached to the FPGA in two banks, 4.4Gbyte/s peak bandwidth per FPGA; 1GHz 8640D dual-core processor with 1Gbyte of DDR2 SDRAM in two banks; XMC mezzanine site; on-board PCI Express switch with four-lane connectivity to the PowerPC, the FPGA, the mezzanine site, and a four-lane port to the backplane. The 3U VPX VPX3-127 single board computer combines the performance and the advanced I/O capabilities of Freescale's MPD8640D Power Architecture processor with an extensive I/O complement to provide a capable processing platform for a range of embedded military/aerospace applications. The VPX3-127 is designed for space, weight and power-constrained applications.