ISSUE 42, SPRING 2002 XCELL JOURNAL XILINX, INC. Issue 42 Spring 2002 XcellXcelljournaljournal THE AUTHORITATIVE JOURNAL FOR PROGRAMMABLE LOGIC USERS PROGRAMMABLE WORLD 2002 Learn all about thethe newnew Virtex-II Pro FPGAs TECHNOLOGY The PowerPC architecture: a programmer’s view Rocket I/O transceivers offer 3.125 Gbps capability SOFTWARE ISE 4.2i expands design productivity once again New tools for embedded processor software design NEWS Virtex-II receives Product of the Year award CoverCover StoryStory AA revolutionaryrevolutionary breakthroughbreakthrough inin processingprocessing R andand systemsystem design,design, fromfrom XilinxXilinx andand IBMIBM LETTER FROM THE EDITOR Who Are You? What Did You Say? any of you have taken the time to give us your very valuable feedback about how we can con- M tinue to improve this Xcell Journal. After all, it is your journal, and its only purpose is to make your job easier and more productive, while also providing insights into the trends and technologies that are shaping the future of logic design. The overwhelming majority of responses indicated that Xcell is a huge success, often read cover to cover, and then saved for later reference. Thank you! Here’s some of what we learned from our reader survey: • Most of you are design/development engineers (74%), doing digital logic design using FPGAs (88%) and CPLDs (76%), for industrial (38%), networking (35%), data processing (25%), and military (24%) applications, in companies of less than 500 employees (60%). • Your three most popular categories are technical (“how to”) articles, new product announcements, EDITOR IN CHIEF Carlis Collins [email protected] and the product reference guides. (You can bet these sections will grow fatter in future editions.) 408-879-4519 Your least popular category is Customer Success stories. MANAGING EDITOR Tom Durkin [email protected] • Most of you read Xcell Online and would still like to receive the printed journal, monthly – 530-271-0899 almost everyone wanted more information, more often. DESIGN & ILLUSTRATION Scott Blair Dan Teie More Information, More Often If you haven’t noticed, Xcell Online is a fast and efficient way to stay informed about Xilinx and its partners. And, it keeps getting better. As we develop the website, you will see many more articles Xcell journal about the topics that are important to you. And, you will find many valuable articles that we could Xilinx, Inc. not fit into the printed Xcell Journal (we receive far more content than we can print). You can see Xcell 2100 Logic Drive San Jose, CA 95124-3450 Online, and other Xilinx literature, at: www.xilinx.com/literature/. Phone: 408-559-7778 FAX: 408-879-4780 Virtex-II Pro and the New Programmable World 2002 ©2002 Xilinx Inc. All rights reserved. This issue of the Xcell Journal focuses not only on a new product, but also a revolutionary new Xcell is published quarterly. XILINX, the Xilinx logo, development paradigm. Our new Virtex-II Pro™ family of Platform FPGAs is truly unique and CoolRunner, Spartan, and Virtex are registered trade- marks of Xilinx Inc. Alliance Series, Xilinx Foundation very powerful – it promises to change forever the way you approach system-level design. As this Series, AllianceCore, Foundation, IRL, LogiCORE, new technology quickly evolves, you will find the latest technical articles, online, as soon as we can SelectI/O, WebPACK, WebPOWERED, WebFITTER, QPro, XPERTS, XtremeDSP, CORE Generator, Rocket publish them, on Xcell Online. I/O, Fast Zero Power, SelectRAM, IP-Immersion, System ACE, ChipScope, and all XC-prefix products are You will also have the opportunity to hear the industry leaders discussing this new design paradigm, and trademarks, and The Programmable Logic Company is a service mark of Xilinx Inc. Other brand or product receive valuable training, at the Xilinx Programmable World 2002 event in April. Attend Programmable names are trademarks or registered trademarks of World 2002 either online or in person at various locations. See www.xilinx.com/pw2002 for details. their respective owners. The articles, information, and other materials includ- Thanks again for your interest in Xilinx and Xcell. Our primary goal is to help you succeed, so please ed in this issue are provided solely for the conven- continue to send me your comments and suggestions. ience of our readers. Xilinx makes no warranties, express, implied, statutory, or otherwise, and accepts no liability with respect to any such articles, informa- tion, or other materials or their use, and any use thereof is solely at the risk of the user. Any person or entity using such information in any way releases and waives any claim it might have against Xilinx for any loss, damage, or expense caused thereby. Carlis Collins [email protected] View from the Top Page 4 Contents Spring 2002 Interesting Times at Xilinx Interesting Times at Xilinx ....................................................4 Witness the worldwide, world-class debut of the Virtex-II Pro Platform FPGA solution for programmable systems. The New Era of Programmable Systems .................................6 Virtex-II Pro: The Platform Has Arrived ..................................10 Cover Story Page 6 Virtex-II FPGAs – Product of the Year ...................................14 The New Era of Programmable Systems The PowerPC – A Programmer’s View ..................................16 The next breakthrough in processing and system design IBM’s PowerPC Strategy Road Map .....................................22 methodology from Xilinx and IBM. Rocket I/O Multi-Gigabit Transceivers ...................................24 Technical Focus Page 10 Best-of-Class Embedded Software Tools ................................26 Virtex-II Pro FPGAs: The Platform for ISE 4.2i Expands Design Productivity ...................................30 Programmable Systems has Arrived New Config. Options for Virtex-II Pro ....................................32 The Virtex-II Pro solution heralds a paradigm shift in system architecture by moving design based on zones of programmability Platform FPGAs Take on ASIC SOCs .....................................35 to entire system-level programmability. Your Reconfiguration is in the E-mail ....................................40 Technical Focus Page 16 SignOnce and Break the IP Barrier .......................................44 The PowerPC Architecture: Bring on the Music – Take out the Noise ..............................46 A Programmer’s View Programmable Solutions for Set-Top Boxes ...........................48 An introduction to the PowerPC programming model. Low-cost Digital Video Reference Design ...............................53 Programmable Logic Enables Digital Displays .........................54 Xilinx News Page 44 Digital Convergence Demands Reprogrammability ..................60 SignOnce and Break the IP License Barrier The FlexBench Tool Suite ....................................................64 Xilinx sponsors the Common License Consortium to streamline Modular Engineering Solutions Platform ................................68 the IP licensing process and improve your time to market. Parallel Cable IV Connects Faster .........................................71 SCC-II Microsequencer ........................................................72 Upgrade to Synopsys FPGA Compiler II .................................76 Rocket I/O Multi-Gigabit Design Kit .....................................78 Subscribe to the Xilinx Xcell Journal at: www.xilinx.com/forms/literature.htm CoolRunner-II CPLD Development Kit ....................................80 There is no better way to keep up to date on the latest programmable logic technologies from Xilinx and its partners. Virtex-II Pro FPGA Data Sheet Overview ...............................82 Xilinx Product Reference Guide ............................................89 Visit Xcell Online for the latest news and information, as soon as it arrives. You can view and download the latest Xcell articles, and all up-to-date Xilinx literature, by visiting: www.xilinx.com/literature/index.htm. Xcell journal Viefromw the top InterestingInteresting TimesTimes WitnessWitness thethe worldwide,worldwide, world-classworld-class debutdebut ofof thethe Virtex-IIVirtex-II ProPro PlatformPlatform FPGAFPGA solutionsolution atat XilinxXilinx forfor programmableprogrammable systems.systems. 4 Xcell Journal Spring 2002 View from the top by Wim Roelandts Strategic Partnerships off as well. The Virtex-II Pro solution CEO, Xilinx comes with a complete set of Xilinx-specif- Xilinx, IBM®, and Conexant™ Systems ic embedded software tools for develop- There is an have been quietly working together to ment, simulation, and debugging. ancient curse: respond to the issues and challenges facing May you live in design teams and their corporations. The close alliance with our partners and the interesting times. Virtex-II Pro Platform FPGAs feature as tight integration of hardware and software No doubt, we many as four IBM PowerPC™ 405 in the Virtex-II Pro platform allows on- are living in processors immersed and embedded with- demand architectural synthesis with tremen- interesting times. I choose, however, to view in the FPGA fabric. Moreover, the Virtex- dous flexibility and scalability. You can effi- this as a blessing rather than a curse. True, II Pro devices connect to the outside ciently divide complex functions between competition is fierce and economic condi- high-speed implementation in hardware and tions are chaotic, but opportunities for high-flexibility