Companion Chip Reference FPGA Designs

Xylon provides pre-designed PCI Express® and USB reference FPGA companion chip designs, prepared for Xilinx® Platform Studio and Embedded Development Kit (EDK) implementation tools**. Designers get the resources they need for tight integration between the FPGA companion chip and their chosen host processor. Together with the extensive logiCRAFT-CC Kit contents, the pre-designed FPGA designs save months of development time, and they allow the designers to focus on the rest of the system and its differentiating features.

The provided reference FPGA designs are implemented by logicBRICKS Evaluation IP Cores and provided as royalty free reference designs enabling FPGA users to build companion chip solutions in a cost effective manner. The reference designs users must have valid licenses** for Xilinx development tools. The logiPCIECTRL* PCIe Companion Chip Controller IP core for bridging between the Xilinx® Spartan®-6 FPGA hard PCIe endpoint and the PLB bus is provided as the VHDL source code.

The USB reference design implements evaluation version of the Xilinx® USB2 IP core. For use in developed products, users must purchase the valid licenses** from Xilinx. Xylon provides free USB firmware that works with the Xilinx USB2 IP core and runs on the Xilinx MicroBlaze™ CPU implemented in the FPGA.

The PCIe Reference FPGA Design


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The PCIe reference design comes as a part of the logiCRAFT-CC kits. The Xilinx Spartan-6 FPGA chip interfaces with the host processor through the PCI Express interface. The design uses Xilinx hard-coded PCIe end-points and Xylon's logiPCIECTRL IP core for bridging to the PLB bus. Different peripheral (application) controllers share the same bus. Xylon's logiWIN IP core captures the ITU656 video (input from the video camera) and streams it to the host processors through the PCIe interface. This FPGA companion chip also handles stereo audio. The logiSDHC IP core controls the SD card.

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The USB Reference FPGA Design



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The USB reference FPGA design comes as a part of the logiCRAFT-CC kits. The Xilinx Spartan-6 FPGA chip interfaces with the host processor through the USB interface. The design implements Xilinx's USB2 IP core. Xilinx's MicroBlaze™ soft-CPU handles the USB protocol stack. Xylon delivers the USB firmware at no cost. This FPGA handles video capturing and video and audio streaming through the USB interface.

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The V850 Reference FPGA Design



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This FPGA design is not part of the logiCRAFT-CC kits. It demonstrates a custom made parallel IO interface between the FPGA and the NEC V850 host processor. The FPGA handles video capturing and streaming supported by the logiWIN IP core, as well as the 2D graphics acceleration supported by the logiBITBLT Bit Block Transfer 2D Graphics Accelerator IP core.
The logiCVC-ML Compact Multilayer Video Controller controls the LCD display and graphics and video blending.

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More about Companion Chip Solutions:


- Companion Chip Introduction
- logiCRAFT-CC Kit Contents
        - logiCRAFT-CC-Elite
        - logiCRAFT-CC-Premier
        - logiCRAFT-CC-Base
- Companion Chip Software Drivers
- Rapid Prototyping
- Companion Chip Demo

* The logiPCIECTRL logicBRICKS IP core is provided in 'as is' form without technical support. The technical support can be purchased from Xylon.
** Reference design users must have valid Xilinx licenses for Platform Studio and Embedded Development Kit development tools. The USB2 IP license must be purchased for use in developed products.

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