Opal Kelly Blog

PORTLAND, OR – Opal Kelly, a leading producer of powerful FPGA USB 2.0 modules that provide the essential device-to-computer interconnect for efficient and fast product prototyping, testing, development, and OEM integration, today announced the volume availability of its new XEM5010 module. Based on the powerful Xilinx Virtex-5 FPGA, the XEM5010 delivers 256-MB DDR2, 36-Mb SSRAM, 32-Mb Flash, and up to 200 high-speed user I/Os. The XEM5010 provides developers, such as XEM5010 early adopter Samplify Systems, with access to a tremendous amount of programmable hardware logic, using only a few simple API calls from Opal Kelly’s FrontPanel software and API.

The XEM5010 is the fastest FPGA USB 2.0 integration module in the Opal Kelly product line. Based on an XC5VLX50 Xilinx Virtex-5 FPGA, the XEM5010 packs power into its small footprint of just 3.35” x 2.40” x 0.69”. In addition to a high gate-count, high-performance FPGA, the XEM5010 utilizes the high transfer rate of USB 2.0 for configuration downloads, enabling an almost instant reprogramming of the FPGA. Opal Kelly’s FrontPanel software interface, included with the module, is an easy-to-use and robust API for communication, configuration, and interfacing to the PC. FrontPanel handles all the interaction between the PC software and the FPGA internals, dramatically reducing the time and effort required to interface to a design. In addition, the Virtex-5 device on the XEM5010 is fully supported by the latest Xilinx WebPack toolchain, available at no charge from Xilinx.

The award-winning fabless semiconductor company Samplify Systems, an early adopter of XEM5010, combines high-performance analog with sophisticated digital processing to deliver a new class of signal processing systems on silicon. It is a winner of the Electronic Products “2008 Product of the Year Award” and the EDN “Innovation Awards for ADCs and DACs” awarded in March 2009. Samplify uses the XEM5010 for a wide range of design, development, and demonstration support. The sales department uses Opal Kelly modules for demonstrating its IP on various types of chips; engineers in the lab each have an Opal Kelly module connected to their computer; and Opal Kelly modules are attached to the server to accelerate the regression suite, where Opal Kelly’s XEM5010 runs simulations faster than the 16-core server.

“The XEM5010 packs tremendous power, I/O, and memory into a very small footprint – just one-sixth the size of our previous FPGA emulation environment,” said Richard Tobias, VP of Operations and Engineering at Samplify Systems. “Opal Kelly’s FPGA-based emulation of our recently released Prism 3.0 compression IP shortened the verification time by 98% compared to RTL simulation. In addition, Opal Kelly’s FrontPanel programming interface was easy to use to get USB communications from our host PC up and running quickly.”

The XEM5010 is the most powerful module in the range of Opal Kelly’s FPGA USB 2.0 modules. In a small footprint the XEM5010 is packed with features:

• 256 MiB DDR2 SDRAM using two completely independent 128-MiB DDR2 SDRAMs (Total Memory bandwidth 2.128-GiB/s or 17.024-Gib/s)
• 32 Mibit Serial Flash
• Small form factor – 85mm x 61mm x 17.6mm (3.35” x 2.40” x 0.69”)
• High-speed USB 2.0 interface for downloading and control
• Self-powered by external DC source
• Opal Kelly’s unique FrontPanel software at no charge, which handles all the interaction between the customer’s software and the customer’s FPGA design;
• Multi-platform API (available for Microsoft Windows XP/Vista, Mac OS X, and Linux, with a variety of languages including C, C++, C#, Ruby, Python and Java);
• DLL support for a variety of third-party tools including Matlab and LabVIEW
• Fully supported by the latest Xilinx WebPack toolchain available at no charge from Xilinx.

“The XEM5010 adds the high-performance Xilinx Virtex-5 module, a newer, faster, bigger chip with better I/O and much more memory, to our suite of off-the-shelf FPGA USB 2.0 offerings,” said Jake Janovetz, founder and president of Opal Kelly. “We are pleased to offer customers, like Samplify Systems, a broad range of solutions that can help them dramatically improve their development time – both cutting costs and helping them deliver product to market most efficiently.”

Opal Kelly XEM5010 modules are available immediately, off-the-shelf, from the Opal Kelly Online Store. Prices range from $1,499.95, with volume discounts available.

About Opal Kelly

Opal Kelly, founded in 2004, offers a range of powerful, off-the-shelf, FPGA USB 2.0 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 efficient and fast product prototyping, testing, development, and OEM integration. Development engineers, researchers, teachers and serious hobbyists, worldwide, use Opal Kelly modules for an efficient 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.