FROM EDN EUROPE: FPGAs adapt to DSP challenges

A new "Starter Kit" development package for Virtex-4 chips from Xilinx supports an effort by the FPGA vendor to increase its coverage of the DSP market, especially in what it terms MVI applications-multimedia, video and imaging. The kit contains a development board and video daughter card, CMOS-sensor camera plus reference designs; software includes a limited version of System Generator for DSP tools plus the FPGA design toolset and a variety of standard video interfaces. For system builders using the TI DM642 EVM platform, a separate kit links in a Xilinx daughter card that they can configure to provide co-processing support and algorithm acceleration, such as real-time video codecs up to high-definition rates. Accompanying these development tools is IP (intellectual property) including an MPEG4 part 2 codec core that handles up to 720 486 pixels at 30 frames per second. The kits cost $1495 and $1995 respectively; and IP cores, $20,000 to $25,000.

Xilinx's new DSP Division anticipates sustained growth from that sector as processing challenges grow, and FGPAs "provide flexibility and parallelism with the ability to scale, while becoming easier to programme." The company has charted out the areas in which it expects to make a greater impact, including defence systems (where partial reconfiguration becomes important), MVI, and digital communications. Xilinx views the plethora of evolving standards in communications with some relish: "Uncertainty is a good thing for an FPGA."

Xilinx, www.xilinx.com.