Acromag AcroPack APZU series mezzanine modules

Acromag’s APZU series expands the company’s offering of mini PCIe-based AcroPack modules with a programmable I/O solution featuring the Xilinx Zynq UltraScale+ multiprocessor system-on-chip (MPSoC). Three models are available, offering a choice of digital I/O interfaces with 28 TTL, 20 TTL and 3 RS422/485, or 14 LVDS signals. The mezzanine modules mount on a variety of AcroPack carrier cards for PCIe, VPX and other platforms, allowing developers to mix and match I/O combinations on a single board for embedded applications running on Linux, Windows or VxWorks operating systems.

The Zynq 3CG MPSoC combines a feature-rich ARM-based processing system and programmable logic in a single device. Two dual-core ARM Cortex CPUs (A53 application processor and R5 real-time processor) deliver high-performance computation capability. 154k logic cells provide plenty of FPGA processing blocks for hardware acceleration and compute-intensive tasks. Additional resources include large on-chip memory, external memory interfaces and a rich set of peripheral connectivity interfaces. Gigabit Ethernet, USB 2.0 and USB-UART interfaces are supported.

The modules measure 30 x 70 mm. They use a standard mini PCIe edge connector but add a down-facing 100-pin connector that internally routes I/O signals through the carrier card to secure field connectors, thus eliminating loose cables. Designers can increase overall system performance by leveraging the tightly coupled CPU and FPGA computing engines for different signal processing tasks in a small form factor.

Designed for defence and aerospace systems, the modules are suitable for adaptive filtering, protocol conversion, simulation, HIL test, motor control, image processing and sensor fusion applications. The COTS modules can be used in PCIe servers, VPX or CompactPCI Serial chassis, and small-form-factor embedded computers.