Embedded design kit includes processor cores

Kit combines all the software and hardware required for building embedded processing systems based on PowerPC 440 and MicroBlaze processors on Virtex-5 FXT FPGAs.

Xilinx has released a powerful new development kit for building embedded processing systems based on PowerPC 440 and MicroBlaze processors.

Built around the Virtex-5 FXT FPGA system integration platform, the new development kit enables both hardware and software designers to quickly architect, develop and debug a wide range of processing applications targeting communications, military, aerospace and many others markets.

"Xilinx has provided designers with a scalable embedded processing platform that ranges from the MicroBlaze soft processor on low-cost Spartan-3A FPGAs to the high performance PowerPC 440 hard processor on Virtex-5 FXT FPGAs", said Robert Day, Vice President of Marketing at LynxWorks.

"With the immediate availability of our BlueCat Linux BSP for this kit, software developers can use our BlueCat Linux solution as a common software development platform for both MicroBlaze and PowerPC processors".

The Embedded Development HW/SW Kit - Virtex-5 FX70T PowerPC and MicroBlaze Processor Edition provides embedded system developers with all of the tools they need to get started quickly on their embedded processing designs.

Starting with the award-winning Xilinx Platform Studio and ISE Design Suite design environments, the kit also provides a Virtex-5 FX70T FPGA development board, the ML507, to accelerate system design; Linux reference designs; robust library of processing IP cores; and a USB JTAG download/debug cable.

The ML507 includes flexible onboard memory options as well as many industry-standard connectivity interfaces to complement the Virtex-5 FX70T FPGA device with an integrated high-performance low-latency PowerPC 440 processing block.

"With its new development kit, Xilinx has provided a compelling platform for device software developers to begin development with the Virtex-5 FXT platform", said Kuljeet Kalkat, Vice President of Alliances Marketing at Wind River.

"Developers can immediately use the award-winning Wind River Workbench development platform to accelerate time to market, building Virtex-5 FXT-based uniprocessor or multicore devices with VxWorks and Wind River Linux".

The kit includes a prebuilt Linux image and embedded processing reference design based on the PowerPC 440 processor, DDR2 memory interface and Gigabit Ethernet interface to help hardware designers get started quickly.

They can also build fully customisable designs from scratch using the easy-to-use Base System Builder wizard and add their custom IP using Xilinx Platform Studio.

The ML507 board provides users with a range of high performance I/O interfacing options including standard interfaces like Gigabit Ethernet, PCI Express as well as custom interfaces they can develop using the gigabit transceivers available on the Virtex-5 FXT device using SMA connectors.

For software development, the kit is supported by the Xilinx Software Development Kit (Eclipse-based development environment with Gnu tools) as well as a wide range of embedded operating systems and real-time operating systems, including: Wind River General Purpose Platform, Linux Edition 2.0; MontaVista Linux 4.0 (5.0 coming soon); LynuxWorks BlueCat Linux 5.4.1; TimeSys Linux; Wind River's VxWorks; Green-Hills Integrity; and ExpressLogic ThreadX.

The industry-standard PowerPC 440 processor block runs at up to 550MHz and 1100 DMIPS in Virtex-5 FXT devices and offers the advantage of integrated DMA channels, dedicated memory interfaces and an FPU option as well as a 5x2 master/slave crossbar switch to optimise flexibility for customising embedded systems without compromising speed.

An APU (auxiliary processing unit) controller enables a direct processor connection to high-speed FPGA logic for a wide variety of coprocessing options, and the PowerPC 440 is already supported by numerous other industry-leading tool/RTOS suppliers.

"The Virtex-5 FXT FPGA with innovative PowerPC 440 block enables developers to cost-reduce and integrate sophisticated systems in a single FPGA, targeting high-performance applications", said Tim Erjavec, Director, Platform Solutions and Services Marketing at Xilinx.

"The new embedded development kit accelerates the development process for these complicated designs by offering intelligent tools, IP and reference designs on a high-performance, customisable hardware platform".

The Embedded Development HW/SW Kit - Virtex-5 FX70T FPGA PowerPC and MicroBlaze Processor Edition (Model Number DK-V5-EMBD-ML507-G) is immediately available from Xilinx, sales channels and online store for US $2595.

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