FPGA Based Digital World

SoC FPGA

FPGA(Field Programmable Gate Array) is programmable for desired functionality requirements after manufacturing, it usually consists of below components.

- configurable logic block(CLB/LE)

- programmable interconnects

- Hard IPs(PLL, Transceiver etc.)

An example FPGA structure is shown below.

A SoC FPGA integrates CPU core (hard IP) into an FPGA, so it’s ‘all-programmable’:

1) Software programmable (with MPU)

2) Hardware programmable (with FPGA)

Currently, only hard ARM Core is integrated into a FPGA, and no x86 core is integrated yet although Intel has bought the FPGA vendor of Altera.

Some of the SoC FPGAs are:

- Xilinx: Zynq-7000, Zynq UltraScale+ MPSoC, Zynq UltraScale+ RFSoC

- Intel(Altera): Cyclone V SoC, Arria V SoC, Arria 10 SoC, Stratix 10 SOC

Agilex SoC: 4 Cortex-A53 Core, 10nm

- Microsemi: SmartFusion SoC FPGAs

No SoC FPGA is provided by Lattice yet.

Below is the benefits summarized by Altera(Interl).

Xilinx SoC FGPA: Zynq UltraScale+ RFSoC

It’s an adaptable Radio Platform SoC FPGA with below feature.

- 4x ARM Cortex-A53 MPCores

- 2x ARM Cortex-R5 MPCores

- 12-bt/14-bit RF ADCs and DACs

- On-chip memory, external DDR

- PCIe, SATA, DP port, USB interfaces

Intel(Altera) Series of SoC FPGA

The evolution route is shown below.

And an example of Intel(Altera) is the high-end Agilex SoC FPGA, with below features.

- 4x 64-bit ARM Cortex-A53 MPCores(1.4GHz)

- Hard Gen4 x16&Gen5 x16 PCIe IPs

- Hard fixed-point and floating-point DSP blocks

- 300 Mb of embedded RAM, external DDR

- PCIe, SATA, DP port, USB interfaces


Altera/Intel	Xilinx	Lattice	Learn About Electronics
MircoSemi	Terasic	Electric Fans