Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) are dedicated Integrated Circuits (ICs) designed to help electronics consumers reconfigure or make important modifications to their devices. Likewise, digital designers seize the opportunity to add, remove or upgrade the respective devices, as per the consumers’ requirements.
In this article, we are going to discuss the Xilinx XCZU7EV, an FPGA family dedicated to multimedia devices.
The Zynq UltraScale+ EV Family
This is the family under which the Xilinx XCZU7EV is categorized. It is generally optimized for enabling multimedia and embedded vision via the use of video codec.
Likewise, the Zynq UltraScale+ EV Family falls under the Zynq UltraScale+ MPSoC. It is a series of Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) using a heterogeneous processing platform to facilitate the configuration of a broad range of embedded applications and devices.
Technical Features of the Xilinx XCZU7EV FPGAs
Xilinx XCZU7EV FPGAs have some technical features that combine to deliver the video codec enablement for multimedia and embedded vision devices.
Here are some of these technical features:
1. High-Speed Peripherals
The high-speed delivery of these interfaces helps in facilitating data or bitstream transmission to and from the devices.
Examples of the supported high-speed interfaces are:
- Gigabit Ethernet
- PCIe® Gen2
- DisplayPort
- USB 3.0
- SATA 3.1
2. Graphics Processing Unit
Since the Xilinx XCZU7EV is all about multimedia, it makes sense for the devices to have an effective and functional Graphics Processing Unit (GPU).
Xilinx XCZU7EV FPGA’s promise to deliver up to 667 Megahertz (MHz) of Graphics Processing using its Arm Mali™-400 MP2.
3. Dynamic Memory Interface
Data and bitstream transmission on the Xilinx XCZU7EV are very much needed, which is the reason why its Dynamic Memory Interface has been delegated for that purpose.
Examples of the supported memory interfaces are:
- LPDDR3
- DDR4
- DDR3L
- LPDDR4
- DDR3
4. Application Processing Unit
The scalability of the applications to be designed with the Xilinx XCZU7EV is also assured. The FPGAs under this family use the Quad-Core Arm® Cortex®-A53 MPCore™ that is up to 1.5 Gigahertz (GHz).
5. Real-Time Processing Unit
The real-time processing of data is readily available on the Xilinx XCZU7EV FPGA. It is deliverable via the Dual-Core Arm Cortex-R5F MPCore that delivers up to 600 Megahertz (MHz).
6. Video Codec Unit
Generally, a video codec is used either as software or hardware to compress or reduce digital video. According to Wikipedia, the compression of digital video may help in improving the memory of the device, but it has some disadvantages.
Some of the common disadvantages are reduced digital video quality and the risk of the video being “lossy.” Lossy as used here means that some of the information in the original video may not be readily available in the compressed format.
To tackle this, the Xilinx XCZU7EV FPGA family has been optimized with the support for the H.264 and the H.265 video codec unit.
The H.264 and the H.265 video codec units are responsible for retaining most of the information in the original video, improving the quality of the video and making it available for multi-standard encoding and decoding.
Conclusion
You can count on the Xilinx XCZU7EV to improve the digital video quality, improve its performance and offer flexible rate control.
Contact RayPCB for professional guidance with the device.
