Kintex-7 FMC Carrier – A Compact JESD204B Powerhouse
In the Media
Press Release
Portland, Oregon – May 27, 2014 – Opal Kelly, a leading producer of powerful FPGA modules that provide essential device-to-computer interconnect using USB or PCI Express, announced the Shuttle TX1 (a.k.a. XEM7350) USB 3.0 FPGA Module, combining a SuperSpeed USB 3.0 interface and a Xilinx Kintex-7 FPGA into an ultra-compact FMC carrier. The Shuttle TX1 USB interface delivers transfer rates exceeding 340MB/s and includes eight high-speed gigabit transceivers for the ultimate JESD204B powerhouse. Kintex-7 transceivers also support other serial standards such as PCI Express, DisplayPort, SATA, HD-SDI, XAUI, Aurora, and others operating at up to 12.5 Gb/s.
The Shuttle TX1, measuring only 80mm x 70mm (3.15” x 2.76”), includes the FPGA, USB interface, 4 Gib DDR3, 32 MiB serial flash, 100 and 200 MHz low-jitter oscillators, and several switching power supplies to power the entire board from a single 5-volt external supply. The Shuttle TX1 fully supports Opal Kelly’s popular cross-platform FrontPanel SDK for FPGA configuration and host communication using a simple API in C/C++, C#, Python, Java, and Ruby programming languages. Several on-board device sensors provide power supply voltage and current sensing and system temperature monitoring, all accessible through the new Device Sensors API in the FrontPanel SDK.
The Shuttle TX1 is a perfect match for all three of the company’s target markets: Integration, Evaluation, and Acceleration. System integrators can build fully-operational prototype and production designs with off-the-shelf FMC peripherals. Manufacturers of high-speed devices such as JESD204B data acquisition chips can launch evaluation boards as FMC peripherals. The TX1 is an ideal platform for demonstrating these devices to customers with a capable, compact system, and custom evaluation software built on the well-supported FrontPanel SDK. With ample logic resources, the Kintex-7 is also suited to signal processing and image processing for acceleration tasks when mated to image capture or data acquisition hardware.
Compact JESD204B Powerhouse
JESD204 is a data converter serial interface standard created through the JEDEC committee to reduce data I/O counts for highspeed data converters. The standard is now supported by several converter manufacturers such as Analog Devices, Texas Instruments, Intersil, IDT, Linear, and many others as well as FPGAs from Altera and Xilinx. The Shuttle TX is a cost-effective carrier for JESD204B converters on FMC peripherals such as the 4DSP FMC176 with Analog Devices AD9250 converters or Fidus FSFAD8200A with IDT converters. Xilinx LogiCORE IP is available (from Xilinx) for the Kintex-7 to support customer design.
Availability
The Shuttle TX1 is offered in three variations with differing FPGA densities. The XEM7350-K70T is in stock and available now through Opal Kelly’s online web store at $1,299.95 (qty 1) with significant volume discounts. The XEM7350-K160T is also available at $1,699.95 (qty 1) with the denser FPGA and more available I/O, but quantities are limited. The XEM7350-K410T offers the densest FPGA in the series and is available for special order. Please contact [email protected] for more information.
About Opal Kelly
Opal Kelly, founded in 2004, offers a range of powerful, off-the-shelf, USB 2.0, and USB 3.0 FPGA modules, including the easy-to-use Opal Kelly FrontPanel software interface and robust API. Opal Kelly products provide the essential device-to-computer interconnect for fast and efficient product prototyping, testing, development, and OEM integration. Development engineers, researchers, teachers, and serious hobbyists, worldwide, use Opal Kelly modules for a versatile and economical interconnect solution that shortens development time, fills expertise gaps, and dramatically accelerates time to market. For more information, or to purchase Opal Kelly products, please visit www.opalkelly.com.
