PicoZed

Boot mode	1	2
JTAG	0	0
Quad-SPI	0	1
SD Card	1	1

Measuring the speed of an NVMe PCIe SSD in PetaLinux

Posted on July 2, 2016 | Jeff Johnson

With FPGA Drive we can connect an NVM Express SSD to an FPGA, but what kind of real-world read and write speeds can we achieve with an FPGA? The answer is: it depends. The R/W speed of an SSD depends as much on the SSD as it does on the system it’s connected to. If I connect my SSD to a 286, I can’t expect to get the same performance as when it’s connected to a Xeon. [Read More]

nvme

Avnet releases PicoZed FMC Carrier Card V2

Posted on May 17, 2016 | Jeff Johnson

For those of you who were interested in running my recent tutorials about connecting a PCIe SSD to the Zynq (Zynq PCI Express Root Complex design in Vivado and Connecting an SSD to an FPGA running PetaLinux) you’ll be happy to know that Avnet has released the PicoZed FMC Carrier Card V2, which is the platform on which those tutorials were based. For more information about the new PicoZed carrier, check out their video - and keep an eye out at 1m:32s where the Ethernet FMC gets a mention! [Read More]

picozed

Connecting an SSD to an FPGA running PetaLinux

Posted on April 15, 2016 | Jeff Johnson

This is the final part of a three part tutorial series on creating a PCI Express Root Complex design in Vivado and connecting a PCIe NVMe solid-state drive to an FPGA. Part 1: Microblaze PCI Express Root Complex design in Vivado Part 2: Zynq PCI Express Root Complex design in Vivado Part 3: Connecting an SSD to an FPGA running PetaLinux (this tutorial) In this final part of the tutorial series, we’ll start by testing our hardware with a stand-alone application that will verify the status of the PCIe link and perform enumeration of the PCIe end-points. [Read More]

nvme pcie ssd popular

Zynq PCI Express Root Complex design in Vivado

Posted on April 14, 2016 | Jeff Johnson

This is the second part of a three part tutorial series in which we will create a PCI Express Root Complex design in Vivado with the goal of connecting a PCIe NVMe solid-state drive to our FPGA. Part 1: Microblaze PCI Express Root Complex design in Vivado Part 2: Zynq PCI Express Root Complex design in Vivado (this tutorial) Part 3: Connecting an SSD to an FPGA running PetaLinux In this second part of the tutorial series, we will build a Zynq based design targeting the PicoZed 7Z030 and PicoZed FMC Carrier Card V2. [Read More]

nvme popular

PicoZed Unboxing

Posted on January 4, 2016 | Jeff Johnson

I recently got myself a PicoZed 7Z030 SoM (system-on-module) so that I could start developing more resource intensive applications for the Ethernet FMC, such as network tapping and network latency measurement. Why would I use a SoM for this? Checkout my comparison of Zynq SoMs to learn more about the benefits of SoMs in product development. It’s worth mentioning this arrived the day after I ordered it. Here are some photos I took while unboxing: [Read More]

Comparison of Zynq SoMs

Posted on May 18, 2015 | Jeff Johnson

In the last year or so, there has been an explosion in the availability of System-on-Modules (SoMs) featuring the popular FPGA+ARM combo Zynq-7000 SoC from Xilinx. I’ve always promoted the idea that FPGAs and SoCs allow for faster design cycles and rapid proof-of-concept, but these SoMs take that advantage to another level. Let me explain why. In the past, I would handle most projects by doing a proof-of-concept on an evaluation board, then designing a custom board that integrates all the required components onto a single PCB. [Read More]

Comparison of Zynq boards

Posted on March 4, 2014 | Jeff Johnson

If you’re interested in testing out the Zynq-7000 SoC from Xilinx there are now quite a few options available, so it comes down to a question of features vs price. Below I’ve listed the most important features of the available boards side-by-side to help you make the right decision for yourself or your company. I’ll also go into what I think of each board before we look at the boards in terms of their popularity. [Read More]