Atmel recently announced the AT91CAP7E, the industry’s first ARM7-based MCU with a direct FPGA interface.
The device is a standard microcontroller with an FPGA interface that makes the FPGA appear and function as if it is on the internal bus of the MCU. It provides customers with a two-chip, no-NRE, FPGA plus ARM7 solution and offers an engineering-free migration path to a low cost and low power customisable MCU.
The CAP7E includes a six-layer advanced high-speed bus (AHB), peripheral DMA controller and 160 Kbytes of on-chip SRAM. On-chip peripherals include USB 2.0 full speed device, SPI master and slave, two USARTs, three 16-bit timer counters, an 8-channel/ 10-bit analog to digital converter, plus a full-functioned system controller including interrupt and power control and supervisory functions.
The FPGA interface provides the FPGA with direct access to the CAP7E's on-chip AHB and peripheral DMA controller. This architecture eliminates FPGA-induced bus contention, off-loads MCU-to-FPGA communications from the CPU, and frees up the external bus interface for external memory access.
Interfacing an ARM7-based MCU to an FPGA has traditionally been done through the external bus interface (EBI) or programmable I/O. Either arrangement requires that the CPU transfer data to and from the FPGA one word at a time, consuming CPU cycles that could be conserved for processing, thereby limiting access to external memory during FPGA operations.
The FPGA interface on the CAP7E provides the FPGA with two AHB masters, four AHB slaves, a special direct AHB slave interface to an external RAM through the FPGA, and a programmable ROM that remaps the external RAM to emulate and debug the ROM code. Fourteen advanced peripheral bus (APB) slaves, two full-duplex DMA channels and 32-bit programmable I/O may be hardware selected to share I/O. An on-chip priority interrupt controller provides up to 13 encoded interrupts and two additional un-encoded interrupts for DMA transfers.
Ryzen-based computer on module Altron Arrow
AI & ML
SolidRun announced the launch of its new Ryzen V3000 CX7 Com module, configurable with the eight-core/16-thread Ryzen Embedded V3C48 processor.
Read more...QuecPython live demonstration Quectel Wireless Solutions
DSP, Micros & Memory
QuecPython allows designers to adapt Quectel’s modules quickly, with a low-code approach to suit their precise requirements in less time and at reduced cost, while maintaining high security standards.
Read more...Robust and customisable SBC Altron Arrow
DSP, Micros & Memory
Pairing the powerful i.MX8M Plus System on Module (SoM) from SolidRun, which features the i.MX 8M Plus SoC from NXP, this high-performance SBC is set to transform industrial environments.
Read more...New family supports future cryptography Altron Arrow
DSP, Micros & Memory
NXP has introduced its new i.MX 94 family, which contains an i.MX MPU with an integrated time-sensitive networking (TSN) switch, enabling configurable, secure communications with rich protocol support in industrial and automotive environments.
Read more...Fast and reliable 4G connectivity worldwide TRX Electronics
DSP, Micros & Memory
Powered by a powerful Quectel LTE Cat 4 modem, the Arduino Pro 4G module’s fast data throughput and high bandwidths ensure reliable and quick data download and upload, even in remote locations.
Read more...NXP’s all-purpose microcontroller series Altron Arrow
DSP, Micros & Memory
NXP has released its MCX A14x and A15x series of all-purpose microcontrollers which are part of the larger MCX portfolio that shares a common Arm Cortex-M33 core platform.
Read more...ESP32-P4 SoC iCorp Technologies
DSP, Micros & Memory
Espressif Systems announced its latest SoC, the ESP32-P4 which is powered by a RISC-V CPU, with an AI instructions extension, an advanced memory subsystem, and integrated high-speed peripherals.
Read more...Non-terrestrial network module Altron Arrow
Telecoms, Datacoms, Wireless, IoT
Fibocom unveiled its MA510-GL (NTN), a non-terrestrial networks module which is compliant with 3GPP Release 17 standard.
Read more...Microchip SoC FPGA ASIC Design Services
DSP, Micros & Memory
Microchip Technology introduced the RT PolarFire SoC FPGA, the first real-time Linux capable, RISC-V-based microprocessor subsystem on a proven RT PolarFire FPGA platform.
Read more...QLC Flash memory using BiCS tech EBV Electrolink
DSP, Micros & Memory
KIOXIA announced it had started shipping its 2 Tb Quad-Level-Cell memory devices with its 8th-generation BiCS FLASH 3D flash memory technology.
printer friendly version