Designing systems for the intelligent edge is more difficult than ever. Market windows are shrinking, the costs and risks of new designs are rising, temperature limits and reliability are twin priorities, and the need for full lifecycle security is growing. Meeting these concurrent demands requires instant access to specialized technologies and vertical market expertise. Microchip today announced the addition of nine new technology and application-specific solution protocol stacks to its growing portfolio of mid-range FPGA and system-on-chip (SoC) support products, covering industrial edge, smart embedded vision and Edge communications.
"We are making it easier to create industry-leading industrial and communications designs," said Shakeel Peera, vice president of strategy for Microchip's FPGA business unit. "Our intelligent edge is powered by the unparalleled power efficiency, security and reliability of PolarFire® FPGAs. The products are being adopted by leading system designers.”
Federic Aubrun, chief operating officer of Xenics, a pioneer in the field of infrared imaging, said: "Size, weight and power consumption are extremely important considerations when designing thermal imaging systems. Xenics has best-in-class short-wave, medium-wave and long-wave infrared imagers, cores and camera products. Microchip’s SmartFusion® and PolarFire FPGAs deliver the best balance of small form factor, energy efficiency and processing resources within the very low power budgets of our current and next-generation products.”
Michael Yampolsky, founder and CEO of KAYA Instruments, said: "We use PolarFire FPGAs because their small size and high power efficiency allow our cameras to fit into tight spaces while leveraging the latest CMOS sensor technology for high quality, low noise , outstanding dynamic range and a large feature set. By using PolarFire FPGAs, our platform can quickly bring the latest vision technology to the market to meet customer needs." KAYA designs industrial-grade imaging equipment, including small size, low power consumption Cameras and frame grabbers that provide excellent video quality in moderate to extreme ambient light conditions.
Previously, Microchip announced in June the launch of an industrial edge protocol stack and extensive resources for OPC/UA (Open Platform Communications/Unified Architecture) to help customers switch to PolarFire FPGAs and SoCs.
Tailored Solution Stack – Available only on PolarFire FPGAs and SoCs Unlike alternatives that provide baseline support for overly broad application categories, the PolarFire FPGA Intelligent Edge Solution Stack is targeted at specific technology and vertical market needs Highly customized, including detailed intellectual property (IP), reference designs, development kits with example designs, application notes, demonstration guides, and more.
Microchip’s new PolarFire FPGA and SoC smart edge solutions and protocol stacks address the following applications:
1. Intelligent embedded vision
(1)H.264 compression;
(2)HDMI®;
(3) Serial digital interface;
(4)CoaXpress®.
2. Industrial edge applications
(1) Motor control;
(2) Open platform communication/unified architecture (OPC/UA).
3. Edge communication
(1) Software-defined radio;
(2)USXGMII;
(3) Small pluggable (SFP+) optical module;
(4)5G ORAN.
Finally, Microchip’s PolarFire devices lead their class, delivering twice the energy efficiency, military-grade security and the highest reliability in the industry. As Microchip continues to increase computing power in smaller, lower-cost industrial, IoT and other edge computing products, the company will further expand product capabilities through the PolarFire 2 FPGA roadmap. PolarFire SoC devices feature a real-time, Linux®-based RISC-V microprocessor subsystem and are the only SoCs on the market that create new configurable processing capabilities through a complex of hardened RISC-V cores in a fast FPGA fabric. This family of FPGA and SoC devices is ideal for creating custom computing within the FPGA fabric, playing an important role in driving the rapid growth of the intelligent edge systems market. Developers can use these software tools to design using Microchip's PolarFire family of products. These tools are available on the company's website. All first generation PolarFire devices are in full production.