Kontron FMC-SER0 FPGA mezzanine card/KIT-FMC-DEV VITA 57 development kit

The FPGA mezzanine card FMC-SER0 and the VITA 57 development kit KIT-FMC-DEV have been introduced by Kontron, rounding off a portfolio of VITA 57 building blocks.

The latest products further minimise non-recurring development time and cost. Integration of IP cores and stacks for application-ready implementations in FPGA-based I/O hubs is provided and it can also handle the complete application development and production. This includes revision control, supply chain management and country/market-specific testing and verification procedures.

OEMs can minimise latency for high-data throughput in their COTS designs and still maintain flexible I/O configuration. The FMC optimises the handling and formatting of data and is about half the size of a PMC. This makes the products suitable for applications where size, weight and power are critical. The modular approach gives reduced development costs by integrating multiple functions into a single PCI Express-enabled FPGA.

The mezzanine card FMC is a multi-channel interface card for buffering up to 16 IEA-232 or 8 EIA-422 serial lines. With a standard air cooled build, it provides up to 24 general purpose I/Os at the front via 50 pin Tyco front connector for direct connection of peripherals. The conduction cooled build complies to VITA 47-Class CC4 and is suitable for the extended temperature range -40 to +85 °C.

The development kit KIT-FMC-DEV enables designers to use the FMC-SER0 as a reference design, providing a practical approach to VITA 57. For an immediate start into VITA 57 based designs, the kit contains the FMC-SER0, a simple FPGA design, a Linux rpm with drivers, utilities for FPGA and FMC management and a FPGA demo program complete with a FPGA image for GPIO implementations.

The software is available for x86 and Power PC architectures and users also receive the source code, allowing for easy modification to the software for individual demands.

With power consumption as low as 27 W, the SBC VM6250 stays within a tight power envelope. It combines high processing power with good memory bandwidth with a choice of Freescale MPC8640 1.00 or 1.25 GHz single- or dual-core processors or Freescale MPC8641 1.33 GHz single- or dual-core processors. Prepared to host a customer-specific FPGA, it also offers a mezzanine extension slot for FMCs.

The Kontron 6U VM6050, with an Intel Core i7 processor, combines high x86 computing and graphics performance with flexible and modular expansion possibilities in four different levels.

OEMs can tailor the 6050 to the individual requirements of new and existing applications and benefit from a reduced time-to-market. Featuring a FPGA site, it can be expanded via two mezzanine sockets for up to two XMC/PMC or one FMC (VITA 57 FPGA I/O) cards.

With the 3U VPX FMC carrier board, VX3830 OEMs can expand the I/O flexibility of their dedicated VPX systems. The board is based on a Xilinx Virtex-5 FPGA and offers enhanced I/O capabilities with high integrated performance logic.