Did you know that the Zynq Ultrascale+ has 4 built-in Gigabit Ethernet MACs (GEMs)? That makes it awesome for Ethernet applications which is why I’ve just developed and shared an example design for the Zynq Ultrascale+ ZCU102 Evaluation board, armed with an Ethernet FMC to break-out those handy GEMs. The ZCU102 board has two FMC connectors, both high-pin-count (HPC), so I’ve created one basic design with two sets of constraints to choose from, depending on which FMC connector you want to use.
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Here’s a first look at the FMC version of the FPGA Drive product, featured with the Samsung VNAND 950 Pro SSD. The FMC version can carry M-keyed M.2 modules for PCI Express and is designed to support up to 4-lanes. It has a HPC FMC connector which can be used on a LPC FMC carrier for a single-lane connection to the SSD, or a HPC FMC carrier to exploit the maximum throughput of a 4-lane connection.
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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!
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Many FPGA-based embedded designs require connections to multiple Ethernet devices such as IP cameras, and control of those devices under an operating system, typically Linux. The development of such applications can be accelerated through the use of development boards such as the ZedBoard and the Ethernet FMC. In this tutorial, we will build a custom version of PetaLinux for the ZedBoard and bring up 4 extra Ethernet ports, made available by the Ethernet FMC.
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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.
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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.
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This is the first part of a three part tutorial series in which we will go through the steps to create a PCI Express Root Complex design in Vivado, with the goal of being able to connect a PCIe end-point to our FPGA. We will test the design on hardware by connecting a PCIe NVMe solid-state drive to our FPGA using the FPGA Drive adapter.
Part 1: Microblaze PCI Express Root Complex design in Vivado (this tutorial)
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Bring-up of the first FPGA Drive with the Kintex-7 KC705 Evaluation board went nice and smoothly today. In the photo below you’ll see the KC705 and FPGA Drive adapter which is loaded with a Samsung V-NAND 950 Pro. The solid-state drive is an M.2 form factor, NVM Express, 4-lane PCI Express drive with 256GB of storage.
A little intro to NVM Express. NVM Express or NVMe is an interfacing specification for accessing SSDs over a PCI Express bus.
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With the first prototypes on the way, it’s time to take a closer look at what exactly FPGA Drive is and how it can help you to develop new disruptive technologies with FPGAs and SSDs. Here’s what you need to know in 3 points:
FPGA Drive enables you to connect a high-speed Solid State Drive (SSD) to an FPGA FPGA Drive delivers high-capacity, extreme-throughput non-volatile storage to FPGA development boards FPGA Drive connects a 4-lane PCI Express bus between your FPGA and SSD The 3D rendered image shows the following key features:
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Almost a year ago I did a comparison of Zynq SoMs, or System-on-Modules, these handy little Zynq-based devices that speed up your product development by taking the risk out of your PCB design and often handing you a ton of working example code. Well there have been many more Zynq SoMs come onto the market since then, so another comparison is due, but today I just wanted to review one of them: ZynqBoard, the smallest Zynq SoM on the market today according to zynqboard.
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