Xilinx Xcell Journal 34
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THE QUARTERLY JOURNAL FOR PROGRAMMABLE LOGIC USERS Issue 34 Fourth Quarter 1999 PRODUCT INFORMATION QPRO - For the Aerospace and Defense Market Multilinx – New High-speed Download Cable APPLICATIONS Spartan FPGAs Used in Digital Modems Two Simple Solutions for Tricky Problems DEVELOPMENT SYSTEMS Xilinx Launches Design COVERCOVER STORYSTORY Reuse Initiative Programming a Xilinx FPGA in "C" New Virtex-E 3.2 million gate, high-bandwidth Maximizing HDL FPGA family Simulation Performance FROM THE EDITOR What's Ahead in the Year 2000... What do you think will be the big technology news in the year 2000? EDITOR t has been a great year for the designs that work right the first time, Carlis Collins programmable logic industry. During companies will create libraries of in- [email protected] 1999, we have seen dramatic house and third-party intellectual 408-879-4519 I property. Xilinx already provides the advancements in every area: device tools you need to create and manage densities have skyrocketed to two million SENIOR DESIGNER intellectual property, and we will gates, with unprecedented performance; Jack Farage continue to lead the industry in this development tools have become very fast, critical area through our Design Reuse BOARD OF ADVISORS efficient, and easy to use; intellectual Initiative. Dave Stieg property has become plentiful and • Internet Reconfigurable Logic - You Dave Galli widespread; device prices have fallen; will begin to see many more companies Mike Seither unique new applications have arisen. designing hardware that can be Peter Alfke reconfigured remotely. The era of single So, what can you expect in the year 2000? use hardware is over, because it is so • Ever Denser FPGAs - We already easy to build "universal" hardware have 2-million gate Virtex™-E FPGAs systems that can change and adapt to Xilinx, Inc. 2100 Logic Drive available, and soon we will be shipping new requirements. Using the evolving San Jose, CA 95124-3450 Xilinx Online™ technology, you can Phone: 408-559-7778 our 3.2-million gate, very high FAX: 408-879-4780 create field upgradable systems that ©1999 Xilinx Inc. performance devices. This much power, All rights reserved. in a programmable logic device, gives last longer and provide more benefits to Xcell is published quarterly. XILINX, the your customers for less cost. Xilinx logo, and CoolRunner are you unprecedented design freedom and registered trademarks of Xilinx, Inc. helps you get very complex designs to • Advanced Development Tools - It Virtex, LogiCORE, IRL, Spartan, takes a full team to design with multi- SpartanXL, Alliance Series, Foundation market as quickly as possible. Series, CORE Generator, IP Internet • Very Low Cost FPGAs - You will million gate devices, and our new Capture, IP Remote Interface, MultiLinx, QPRO, SelectI /O, Select I/O+, True Dual- continue to get more gates for less software tools will make it easy to Port, WebFITTER, WebPACK, ChipViewer, collaborate on designs with engineers Select RAM, Block Ram, Xilinx Online, money. Our Spartan™ family of low and all XC-prefix products are cost FPGAs keeps getting better and anywhere in the world. Look to Xilinx trademarks, and The Programmable to lead the effort in creating the high- Logic Company is a service mark of less expensive. Why develop costly, Xilinx, Inc. Other brand or product time consuming, risky ASICs, when you level, fully-integrated, development names are trademarks or registered tools you will need for both large and trademarks of their respective owners. can get the flexibility, ease of use, low small designs. The articles, information, and other risk, and low cost of FPGAs? High materials included in this issue are volume, consumer applications will In the year 2000 you will not only see provided soley for the convenience of take full advantage of this our readers. Xilinx maes no warranties, bigger, better, faster, cheaper devices, you express, implied, statutory, or otherwise, breakthrough. and accepts no liability with respect to will also see the decline of single use, fixed any such articles, information, or other • Design Reuse - To reach the materials or their use, and any use logic hardware and the beginning of a new thereof is solely at the risk of the user. marketplace sooner, with robust Any person or entity using such paradigm of field upgradable logic. information in any way releases and waives any claim it might have against Xilinx for any loss, damage, or expense caused thereby. 2 ARTICLES Inside This Issue: Programmable Logic in the Next Millenium . .4 The New Virtex-E 2-Million Gate, COVER STORY High-bandwidth FPGA Family . .5 Now you can achieve up to 622 MHz 5 Virtex-E Package Compatibility Guide . .10 differential I/O performance with the Xilinx Receives Cisco's Highest new Virtex-E 3.2 million gate, high- Honor for a Supplier . .13 bandwidth FPGA family. Stackable Virtex FPGA Board for General Use . 14 QPRO - for the Aerospace and Defense Market . .16 Gamma-ray Large Area Space PRODUCT INFORMATION Telescope (GLAST) Tower CPU . .18 PRODUCT INFORMATION Xilinx introduces New Xilinx has just introduced a new 20 High-speed Download Cable . .20 bitstream download cable that reduces Programmable Flash SPROMs . .21 Simultaneous 4-channel, 12-bit download times by 10X over the older A/D Conversion . .22 XChecker™ solution. Spartan FPGAs Help Create Movie-quality Video on the PC . .23 Infrared Digital Voice Module . 24 Programming a Xilinx FPGA in "C" . 26 DEVELOPMENT SYSTEMS Java Tool Increases Pipelining 44 Speed . .31 New tools allow you to capture and share Maximizing HDL Simulation your own intellectual property over the Performance . 32 What’s New in V2.1i for Internet. XC9500 CPLDS? . 34 Timing Correction for Flight Time Compensation . .36 The Power of the Xilinx Foundation Series Software . .41 nternet APPLICATIONS Xilinx Launches Design Reuse Initiative . .44 Access Router WAN 49 An overview of digital modem Try HDL Simulation for Free . 46 LAN Int technologies and how Xilinx high-volume CPLD ChipViewer - Graphical Design Control programmable devices can be used to Made Simple . .48 LAN implement complex system-level glue Xilinx at Work in Digital Modems . 49 logic in digital modem designs. Two Simple Solutions for Tricky Problems . .54 Trade Show Programs . 56 COLUMN How Programmable Logic 58 Provides More Options The market has shifted dramatically in for Consumers . .58 the last ninety years. Today the Product Selection Guide . .59 buzzword is "mass customization"— Competitive Overview . 62 unique products at a price comparable to that of mass-produced standard goods. www.xilinx.com For A FREE E-mail your request to: [email protected] Please be sure to include: Subscription 1. Your Full Name and Mailing Address 4. Your E-mail Address To The Xcell 2. Your Title 5. Is This New Subscription or a subscription Renewal? Journal 3. The Name of Your Company 3 View from the Top Programmable Logic in the Next Millenium I expect that within the first ten years of the next millennium we will see programmable logic devices inside every piece of electronic equipment, because hardware will become just as programmable as software. by Wim Roelandts, President and CEO, Xilinx all Street market analysts new, fast growing, high volume equipment such expect the as cable and DSL modems, cell phones, hand- W programmable logic held electronic games, and DVD players. industry to grow another 25-35% in the year 2000, following a 25% The total cost of ownership for an FPGA has increase in 1999. This increase is being driven, also stayed flat, as compared to substantial in part, by a worldwide economic recovery; we increases in the cost of ownership for standard are seeing dramatic increases in Southeast Asia, cell and gate-array technology. FPGAs eliminate and Japan is also beginning to improve. the need for expensive NRE (Non Recurring However, the recovering world economy is just Engineering), development, system integration, one of many reasons for the dramatic growth in and field deployment costs. However, NRE programmable logic. charges for standard cell and gate array ASICs have risen sharply as feature sizes have dropped The primary reason for this phenomenal below 0.5 micron. In addition, for gate array and growth is the tremendous technological standard cell chip development, the required advances that have taken place over the last two board debugging, system integration, and field years. In 1996, our largest FPGA contained just trial costs have also gone up sharply. 50,000 gates, and no BlockRAM™. Today, the Xilinx Virtex-E family offers up to 3.2 million Another significant attraction of system gates, with 832 kbits of BlockRAM. This programmable logic is field upgradability. means that FPGAs are large enough and fast Because FPGAs can be reprogrammed an infinite enough to interest designers who once relied on number of times, equipment can easily be gate array or standard cell technology. Using upgraded over a network after it has been FPGAs, designers can now get the performance installed at a customer’s premises. This allows and density of gate arrays, and something gate forward-thinking manufacturers to quickly get arrays never offered—fast time-to-market and their new products to market and then add new affordable pricing. features, comply with evolving standards, or fix bugs, remotely, without physically replacing any Xilinx will soon introduce a new Spartan hardware. family which will offer 100,000 system gates for less than $10.00. This downward pricing trend is The year 2000 is clearly a turning point for expected to continue, and 500,000 system gates the programmable logic industry, as we quickly will be available for under $10.00 by the year expand into new high-volume markets with 2003. These dramatic improvements will further advanced high-density, low-cost technologies. expand the influence of programmable logic in 4 Cover Story THE NEW Virtex-E 3.2-Million Gate, High-bandwidth Many designs will require multiple high FPGA Family bandwidth data ports with I/O bandwidth With up to 622 MHz differential I/O distributed across the required ports as shown in performance, Virtex-E FPGAs are the Table 1.