Xilinx, Sun Microsystems Put Punch In Internet Logic
Error-free delivery of hardware over networks is changing the way products are being designed. Loading software into flash to change the function of a computer, or the look and feel of its user interface, is old hat. On the other hand, altering hardware remotely is a relatively new concept, one that's enhanced immeasurably by networking--especially the Internet's World Wide Web.
In conjunction with Sun Microsystems and a raft of enthusiastic customers, field programmable gate array (FPGA) vendor Xilinx (San Jose, CA) is announcing a program called Xilinx Online. It will let OEMs modify FPGA designs remotely. The firm's Virtex brand of programmable logic is supported through Sun's increasingly popular object-oriented Java programming language.
Networks Transmit Java Applets
Xilinx says online field upgradable applications using Sun's Java are already used in network equipment such as ATM switches, cellular base stations, satellite communications systems, security systems and process controllers. Looking to the near future, the company says it's also begun targeting OEMs designing the emerging round of network appliances, multi-use set-top boxes, and mobile network devices. According to market watchers at International Data Corp., an astounding 500 million Web-enabled devices will be installed by 2002.
In operation, a Java application programming interface, or API, for boundary scan testability is encapsulated in a Java applet. It's then transmitted over virtually any network using any protocol into any Xilinx-equipped computer running a Java Virtual Machine. JVM supports a "write once, run anywhere" approach to software development. A designer can call up a schematic diagram, do logic synthesis, perform place-and-route operations, and then test the design. Once finalized, all that remains is to send the Java applet.
According to Rich Sevcik, the firm's senior vice president of software, cores and support, the scheme works just as well over private networks as it does with the Internet. "That's important for security reasons in some applications," he says.
Platform Independence
Thanks to JVM's ability to run on almost microprocessor, Xilinx's technique is independent of processor architectures. The JVM software layer interprets Java bytecodes and dynamically compiles them to a given host's instruction set.
In the Xilinx Online Java scheme, a computing system designed with a Xilinx FPGA equipped with IEEE-1149.1 JTAG boundary-scan testability and a JTAG port can be upgraded, patched, enhanced, or even totally revamped. Xilinx Online enables, identifies, and promotes field upgradable applications based upon the company's latest Internet Reconfigurable Logic (IRL) hardware products.
The Xilinx Online announcement comes ahead of next month's Design Automation Conference (DAC) in New Orleans, where Xilinx says it will demonstrate a variety of design wins using Virtex FPGAs.
Facilitating the creation of Xilinx Online field upgradable applications, Xilinx announced the availability of a set of developer's tools called JBits and ChipScope. Xilinx is also rolling out the API for Boundary Scan tools.
The JBits bitstream API is available from Annapolis Microsystems (Annapolis, MD), Mirotech (Montreal, Canada), and Virtual Computer (Encina, CA). JBits permits OEM designers to write information directly to a Xilinx FPGA to carry out whatever customer logic operations were designed for it. JBits can partially or fully reconfigure the internal logic of Virtex FPGAs.
A Look Inside the Silicon
Similarly, ChipScope is a JBits-based tool that runs on any PC--either locally over a network--to verify FPGA designs. It lets designers interactively examine the operation of FPGAs, revealing data flow of buried structures, and graphically displaying the internal states of FPGAs used in a system. Waveform displays permit bit-level and multi-bit buses to be viewed much as they would be on a circuit simulator.
In addition to these tools that were announced in January as part of the IRL thrust, Xilinx is now announcing the addition of Memec Design Services (Phoenix, AZ) and Cadence Design Systems (Santa Clara, CA) to its team of support companies. Siemens Information Technology for Industrial Plants (Munich, Germany) is a company already supporting IRL.
A Demo For Everyone At DAC
One demo being readied by Xilinx for DAC is a PC-based digital photography hardware accelerator. It's for the popular Adobe Photoshop software suite.
The demo uses an Internet session to upgrade a PC image processing engine based on Virtex FPGAs. "It provides hardware acceleration for Photoshop filters, not just software acceleration," says Sevcik. "The hardware will run 10 to 100 times faster than software."
The demo will let DAC visitors select Photoshop filters configured for a Virtex FPGA from an Internet appliance Web site. In actual use, users would be able to securely download the filters using Java-based technology.
The filters, designed using Xilinx software, are downloaded to a laptop and then programmed into a 300,000-gate Virtex FPGA on a PCMCIA plug-in PC Card designed by Annapolis Microsystems. The PC Card handles the high speed processing, essentially modifying the hardware of the laptop it's plugged into!
Lowering Cost-of-Ownership
A company using Xilinx Online IRL, albeit in a much higher-end application, is TSI TelSys. "Our customers include space agencies and aerospace firms," says Toby Bennett, TSI's vice president. "Satellite ground stations using our protocol-agile communications products are located in inhospitable regions such as the North Pole. We use Xilinx Online FPGAs so our parts of these remote systems can be maintained and updated."
Another OEM using Xilinx Online and IRL is NorTel Networks (Belleville, Ontario, Canada). "Field upgradability was definitely a factor in choosing programmable logic," contends Tod Rikley, the firm's hardware development manager. "The FPGA makes it possible to offer hardware fixes through software, avoiding costly retrofits."
Similarly, News, Data, and Services Ltd. (NDS) uses IRL to make post-installation upgrades to its high definition TV broadcast system products. John Simmons, project leader for NDS, says all his company's FPGA design data is stored in flash that's accessible over an Ethernet connection. "Upgradability is essential to our success," he asserts. "It permits fast, cheap resolution to problems we get in the field--which is a delight to our customers."
Fast Logic
Xilinx's Virtex family of FPGAs packs 200 MHz system interfaces as well as timing management capabilities in million-gate FPGA devices that include a hierarchy of memory resources. In the past, Xilinx offered its Virtex FPGAs with one million gates. As of today, Xilinx says it will deliver FPGAs with two million gates.
In a system, a Virtex FPGA can support partial reconfiguration, letting new circuitry be downloaded while standard operation continues within the chip. A 40O Mbit/second reconfiguration rate ensures that a full reconfiguration can be done in milliseconds (some partial reconfigurations can be done in microseconds).
Significantly, the development tools pin-lock a design, ensuring that a reconfigured FPGA won't demand printed circuit board re-layout. Likewise, the tools also lock I/O timing constraints to ensure that a reconfigured FPGA will play with other system chips. "Such developments will radically change the electronics industry," concludes Sevcik.
For more information contact product manager Wallace Westfeldt at Xilinx, 2300 55th St., Boulder, CO 80301. Phone: (303) 413-3280. Fax: (303) 442-9124. Contact Diana Anderson at Cadence, Santa Clara, CA. Phone: (408) 894-3478 or email