Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) are now grouped into families or series, based on the performances they offer. In line with that, the Xilinx Zynq UltraScale+ has been launched to be an FPGA series dedicated to tackling some of the issues tenable with system scalability.
What is System Scalability?
It is a term used in the configurable logic or logic device market to refer to the capability of those devices to be interoperable with one another. That interoperability brings about the ease of moving the designs to and from the supported devices.
However, in recent times, interoperability in particular and scalability in general have become a herculean task in the logic device market. As ScienceDirect noted in a publication, “adding more and more symmetric cores is not guaranteed to provide continued performance improvement.”
Therefore, introducing a better system for that kind of integration is imperative. The answer became the Xilinx Zynq UltraScale+. According to the manufacturer, Xilinx (now a part of AMD), this is a “Heterogeneous Multiprocessing Platform for Broad Range of Embedded Applications.”
Read further to understand what this means and some of the benefits and drawbacks to expect from the same.
The Broader Perspective
From a broader perspective, Xilinx manufactured and released the Xilinx Zynq UltraScale+ to be a series of FPGAs designed to scale the configuration of logic device designs. It is imperative to also note that it has two major variants – the Xilinx Zynq UltraScale+ MPSoC and the Xilinx Zynq UltraScale+ RFSoC.
Back to the primary function, the Xilinx Zynq UltraScale+ is designed to promote system scalability. Now, we will look at the different divisions or categories of the Xilinx Zynq UltraScale+.
The Xilinx Zynq UltraScale+ MPSoC
This is the primary variant of the Xilinx Zynq UltraScale+. According to the manufacturer, it is designed to provide the highest scalable infrastructure via the 64-bit processor.
It also combines a wide range of other peripherals, such as the packet processing capability, the video, waveform and the soft and hard engines used for graphics.
Xilinx Zynq UltraScale+ MPSoC Variants
Depending on the target applications or use cases, you can find the associated devices under the broader variants of the Xilinx Zynq UltraScale+ MPSoC. It has three (3) major variants, which are:
- Xilinx Zynq UltraScale+ EG: this variant is primarily used for the video codec enabled applications. The use case also extends to the embedded vision and multimedia applications.
- Xilinx Zynq UltraScale+ CG: this is the primary variant for achieving the heterogenous undertone to the broader Xilinx Zynq UltraScale+ FPGAs. It serves as the “entry-point to heterogenous processing.”
- Xilinx Zynq UltraScale+ EG: this is the third variant of the Xilinx Zynq UltraScale+ FPGAs. It is used for broad or a wide range of next-generation applications.
Xilinx Zynq UltraScale+ Advantages
Let us now talk about some of the benefits of using the Xilinx Zynq UltraScale+. It is imperative to point out here that these solutions are based upon the commitment to offer the highest levels of performances and integrations.
1. Device Migration Capabilities
Before now, it is nearly impossible to migrate or transfer the original design of a logic device to another. This inability is one of the major reasons why some FPGAs are said to be non-scalable or not interoperable.
Xilinx Zynq UltraScale+ MPSoC addresses that with the device migration capabilities. The FPGAs in this family “provide the footprint compatibility to enable users to migrate designs from one device to another.”
We will also mention that despite the device migration capabilities, extreme caution must be exerted when making the migration. This is because not all devices have the same migration capabilities.
The focus is on the devices or packages that have the “same footprint identifier code.” The coding is particularly on the last letter and number sequence.
If the devices you intend to migrate the designs have the above, you can be sure of transferring the design from the “host” device to other.
The Xilinx Zynq UltraScale+ RFSoC
This is the second variant of the broader Xilinx Zynq UltraScale+ FPGAs. Here, the manufacturer stated that the Xilinx Zynq UltraScale+ RFSoC “the industry’s only single-chip adaptable radio platform.”
It is broadly categorized into the Xilinx Zynq UltraScale+ RFSoC and the Xilinx Zynq UltraScale+ DFE. The latter (Xilinx Zynq UltraScale+ DFE) is the “latest adaptive RFSoC platform that integrates more hardened IP than soft logic for critical DFE processing.”
Benefits of the Xilinx Zynq UltraScale+ RFSoC Platform
If you are to use the Xilinx Zynq UltraScale+ RFSoC FPGA series or platform, these are some of the unique benefits that come with doing so:
2. Single-Chip Radio SoC
The platform integrates a single-chip, complete System-on-a-Chip (SoC); a model that allows for the integration of most components inside one platform.
The single-chip radio SoC also paves the way for the integration into a wide range of applications, including the capability to “produce radio variants.”
The complete SoC radio-chip platform also integrates the following:
- FPGA fabric
- A complete analog and digital programmability across the RF signal chain
- A full ARM processing subsystem
The Heterogenous Optimization of the Xilinx Zynq UltraScale+
Both the Xilinx Zynq UltraScale+ MPSoC and the Xilinx Zynq UltraScale+ RFSoC inherit the heterogeneity that comes with the Xilinx Zynq UltraScale+.
But why are these FPGA fabrics heterogenous? According to ScienceDirect, “heterogenous multiprocessors aim to address the (issues associated with integrating more cores into System-on-Chips) by incorporating different types of cores and/or specialized hardware in a single system.”
Wikipedia adds that heterogenous computing “refers to systems that use more than one kind of processor or cores.”
From the above submissions, we conclude that the Xilinx Zynq UltraScale+’s use of a heterogenous multiprocessing platform is one of the ways it enables the integration of multiple cores in broad range of embedded applications.
Final Words
The integration of more (processing) cores can significantly improve the performance of multiprocessors in particular and logic devices in general. The wide range of heterogenous multiprocessing capabilities, combined with the broad range of applications help to extend the processing core integrations across different configurable devices.
