Xilinx has launched what it claims is the “world’s largest” FPGA chip featuring 9 million system logic cells.
Xilinx says the new chip represents the expansion of its 16 nanometer (nm) Virtex UltraScale+ range.
The new FPGA – the Virtex UltraScale+ VU19P – has 35 billion transistors, and provides “the highest logic density and I/O count on a single device ever built”, according to Xilinx.
The increased capacity will enable the emulation and prototyping of tomorrow’s most advanced ASIC and SoC technologies, as well as test, measurement, compute, networking, aerospace and defense-related applications, says Xilinx.
The VU19P sets a new standard in FPGAs, featuring 9 million system logic cells, up to 1.5 terabits per-second of DDR4 memory bandwidth and up to 4.5 terabits per-second of transceiver bandwidth, and over 2,000 user I/Os.
It enables the prototyping and emulation of today’s most complex SoCs as well as the development of emerging, complex algorithms such as those used for artificial intelligence, machine learning, video processing and sensor fusion.
The VU19P is 1.6X larger than its predecessor and what was previously the industry’s largest FPGA – the 20 nm Virtex UltraScale 440 FPGA.
Sumit Shah, senior director, product line marketing and management, Xilinx, says: “The VU19P enables developers to accelerate hardware validation and begin software integration before their ASIC or SoC is available.
“This is our third generation of world-record FPGAs. First was the Virtex-7 2000T, followed by the Virtex UltraScale VU440, and now the Virtex UltraScale+ VU19P.
“But this is more than silicon technology; we’re providing robust and proven tool flows and IP to support it.”
The VU19P is supported by an extensive set of debug, visibility tools, and IP, providing customers with a comprehensive development platform to quickly design and validate next-generation applications and technologies.
Hardware and software co-validation allows for developers to bring up software and implement custom features before physical parts are available.
Moreover, the design flow can be co-optimized by using the Xilinx Vivado Design Suite, which reduces cost and tape-out risk, and improves efficiency and time-to-market.
Tran Nguyen, director of design services, Arm, says: “Arm relies on Xilinx devices as part of our process for validating our next-generation processor IP and SoC technology.
“The new VU19P will further enable Arm, and many others in our ecosystem, to accelerate the design, development and validation of our most ambitious roadmap technologies.”
The VU19P will be generally available in the fall of 2020.
