4DSP Introduces Xilinx SDAccel Support and UltraScale FPGA Performance for Its Compact Embedded System

May 26, 2015 — Austin, TX – 4DSP today announced two new additions to its Compact Embedded System (CES) line. The CES820 and the ruggedized CESCC820 variant both feature an upgraded Xilinx Kintex UltraScale FPGA and support for the new SDAccel development environment. These standalone, small form factor systems are complete and generic processing platforms for data acquisition, signal processing, and communication. The powerful UltraScale FPGA provides a flexible processing backbone for interfacing to the FMC site, CPU, and external DDR3 SDRAM, with plenty of room left over for high-performance digital signal processing.

“Our continuing focus on building complimentary products for our industry-leading FMC line has been validated yet again with the successful introduction of the CES820,” said Richard Gary, 4DSP Sales Manager. “From our discussions with key customers, we know that these products have received tremendous interest. They offer high-end data acquisition and processing in small, ruggedized form factors, making them ideal for an incredible number of applications in both the lab and the field.”

The CES820 enclosure measures about five inches per side and weighs less than 1 Kg. Designed with Size, Weight and Power (SWaP) in mind, this system provides a quad-core, low-power Atom CPU that is tightly coupled to the UltraScale FPGA and FPGA Mezzanine Card (FMC – VITA 57.1). The CES820 is ideal for development and prototyping purposes. It can serve as a customizable standalone lab computer and instrument or as a deployed embedded solution. The ruggedized CESCC820 version features a slightly larger, more robust, and vibration-resistant chassis which offers conduction cooling and space for additional FMC modules. It optionally offers a dual 10Gb Ethernet port for high-bandwidth applications in the military and aerospace markets. These characteristics give the CESCC820 I/O versatility and flexible functionality while enabling the system to be deployed in a wider range of demanding environments.

The CES820 and CESCC820 systems are the first 4DSP products to support the revolutionary Xilinx SDAccel development environment, opening up new algorithm acceleration possibilities for low-power digital signal processing applications. “With SDAccel, Xilinx has introduced the first architecturally optimizing compiler for OpenCL, C, and C++, enabling software engineers to dynamically program the functionality they need inside of the FPGA,” said Yousef Khalilollahi, Senior Director, Aerospace and Defense, Xilinx. “Combined with SDAccel, the 4DSP CES820 and CESCC820 deliver high-level programmability for anti-jamming, compression, encryption, high-performance signal processing in communication signal analysis, and other advanced Aerospace & Defense applications.”

FMCs for the CES820 and CESCC820 can be selected from 4DSP’s extensive and diverse portfolio or from a third-party vendor. The 4DSP Board Support Package (BSP) and StellarIP firmware tool and library are included with these systems, allowing designers to jump into development with modular reference designs that exercise the systems’ capabilities and provide high-level interfaces and driver support.

More details about these products can be found here:
http://www.4dsp.com/CES820.php
http://www.4dsp.com/CES820CC.php

Features

System IO

HDMI
USB
eSATA (not available for ruggedized system)
1Gb Ethernet
2x 10Gb Ethernet (optional)
FMC HPC site
JTAG
PCIe communication between processor and FPGA
Processor – System Controller
Intel Atom Quad Core 1.91 GHz Processor
2GB DDR3 SDRAM
64GB SSD (2x 64GB SSD option available for ruggedized system)
Windows and Linux support
FPGA
Kintex UltraScale XCKU040
4GB DDR3 SDRAM
SDAccel support
Power
DC16V – 30V
Dimensions and Weight
CES820
132 x 75 x 125 mm (WxHxD)
0.86 Kg
CESCC820
Enclosure base – 148 x 163 mm (WxD)
Enclosure body – 121 x 163 mm (WxD)
Height – 100 mm
Weight – 3.0 Kg

Applications

Beamforming
Direction finding
Software defined radio (SDR)
Satellite communications systems
RADAR/SONAR Image Processor
RADAR & Radio Jamming
JPEG2000 Video Image Processors
Baseband Communications Transceivers
Multi-channel digital receivers
Up to 64M-point floating-point FFT processing
Event Processor & Recorder
Board Support Package

StellarIP is available for this product. It offers a simple way to design FPGA firmware with automated code and bitstream generation.

Board control and monitoring tools
Flash programming utility
Confidence tests
Host-side API
Software program example
Xilinx ISE projects
Test firmware and VHDL source code
Drivers for Windows and Linux
Embedded operating system options are available. Contact sales@4dsp.com for more details.
Download the BSP datasheet for more information.

About 4DSP LLC

4DSP is an innovative Austin, Texas-based corporation dedicated to the design and manufacture of commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) board-level electronics, FPGA Intellectual Property (IP Core), and system level solutions. With the most advanced digitizers and FPGA-based products, 4DSP has a reputation for delivering high-performance DSP solutions for the specific embedded computing requirements of Military, Aerospace, Biomedical and Chemical Science applications. As an AS9100 certified company, 4DSP excels at providing solutions that make an impact in both the lab and the field. More information about 4DSP can be found at http://www.4dsp.com.