Microsemi has launched the RTG4 FPGA development kit, described as a 'first of its kind' system that allows engineers to evaluate the use of the RTG4 radiation tolerant FPGA in applications such as data transmission, serial connectivity, bus interface and high speed designs.
Minh Nguyen, Microsemi's senior marketing manager for space and aviation, said: "In addition to Microsemi's commitment to the space industry, this new development kit affirms our dedication to providing evaluation and development solutions to help designers successfully leverage our latest technologies."
An early user of the kit was UK based space company STAR-Dundee. Its managing director Professor Steve Parkes said: "We took advantage of RTG4's embedded SpaceWire clock recovery circuits and high speed SERDES capabilities to quickly demonstrate our SpaceWire IP running at more than 200Mbit/s and our next generation SpaceFibre IP at running at 2.5Gbit/s using [the] kit."
The kit features an RT4G150 in a ceramic package with 1657 pins, two 1Gbyte DDR3 SDRAMs and 2Gbyte of SPI flash. Along with a range of connectors, the kit has an RJ45 interface for 10/100/1000 Ethernet and an embedded Flashpro5 programmer and external programming header. A range of demonstration guides and tutorials are also available.
Author
Graham Pitcher
Source: www.newelectronics.co.uk