Xilinx takes its Zynq-7000 all programmable SoC to 1 GHz

Xilinx has announced it has increased the peak processing performance of the Zynq-7000 All Programmable SoC family to 1 GHz, and is also providing smaller form factor packaging to enable higher system performance and programmable systems integration. These enhancements further expand the system value of many high-end image and graphic processing applications within the medical, Aerospace and Defense (A&D) markets.

Zynq-7000 All Programmable SoCs are the first tightly integrated hardware, software and I/O ‘all programmable’ devices in the industry.

“Using Zynq for our measurement devices gives us an extremely compact physical solution as well as an extremely compact system because software and hardware are closer together than ever before,” said Matthias Goetz, hardware project leader at Rohde & Schwarz. “We especially appreciate the great bandwidth performance between the FPGA and industry standard processing sub-system because it accelerates our processing and system development and it allows us to easily move functions from processor to programmable logic when and where needed.”

The new 1 GHz performance benchmark, a 25 percent increase over initial specifications for the two largest Zynq-7000 devices, means the Zynq-7000 family can meet the performance requirements of even more applications than previously anticipated, especially for systems involving heavy-duty image or signal processing where customers need high-end processing capabilities in a single chip. Customers who would otherwise require multiple chips to achieve their processing requirements can lower BOM while optimizing their applications with better performance and lower power consumption thanks to the tight integration between the ARM processing sub-system and programmable logic.

“The combination of the processor sub-system running at 1 GHz with the acceleration capability that the tightly coupled programmable logic offers, puts the Zynq-7000 All Programmable SoC on par, and often ahead, of competing dual core solutions with higher processor frequencies, and in many cases at lower power,” said Vidya Rajagopalan, Xilinx’s vice president of processing solutions. “A significant factor behind our ability to take the Zynq-7000 family to 1 GHz is Xilinx’s choice of TSMC’s 28nm HPL process, which we are using for our entire 28nm generation to bring the value of low-power with high-performance to customers.”