25 October 2011
Stacked silicon interconnect FPGA now shipping
A year after announcing its stacked silicon interconnect approach to programmable logic, Xilinx is now shipping the Virtex-7 2000T, which it claims to be the largest fpga yet launched.
The part, which features 6.8billion transistors, provides 2million logic cells or the equivalent of 20m asic gates. Chief technology officer Ivo Bolsens, pictured, said the part started shipping in September. "We're confident the technology is ready for mainstream deployment."
The part, which features 6.8billion transistors, provides 2million logic cells or the equivalent of 20m asic gates. Chief technology officer Ivo Bolsens said the part started shipping in September. "We're confident the technology is ready for mainstream deployment."
The result of a five year development programme, the 2000T is said by Bolsens to deliver 'more capacity, performance, bandwidth and power efficiency than any other product. "This technology has allowed Xilinx to make a difference that goes beyond percentage improvements on figures of merit," he claimed. "It's a break out technology and something that will create new opportunities."
Made on TSMC's 28nm HPL process, the 2000T is said to consume 19W while producing a dsp performance of 1.5TMACs.
One of the main targets for the part is asic replacement. "There are a few bastions left," Bolsens noted. "The 2000T can go after high end asics; it's somewhere people didn't expect fpgas to be." Quoting an example, Bolsens said a customer is replacing a 'multichip' asic solution, which consumes 70W and needs a three year development programme, with a 2000T based approach that consumes less than 30W and which can be brought to market two years earlier.
Bolsens also believes the 2000T could be the device which breaks the fpga market out of its current flatline performance. Annual fpga sales have remained around the $4bn mark for some years, despite attempts to grow revenues through targeting new markets. "This will see the fpga market enter a growth phase. By using this technology, users will be able to have single chip integrated systems with, for example, optics, memory and, potentially, multicore processors," he concluded.
Author
Graham Pitcher
Supporting Information
Websites
http://www.xilinx.com
Companies
Xilinx Incorporated
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