Prototype testing with FPGAs
The other important component of the package, HES Proto-AXI module, now includes interrupt support and a Python API. Board packages provided by the latest release facilitate the development of an FPGA-based prototype and its operating environment. Board definition files enable the quick connection of the design to on-board peripherals in the Xilinx Vivado design environment. Moreover, sample projects contain complete source codes and can be used as starting points for the user’s applications. This greatly improves productivity and shortens the total time of the overall prototyping stage.
The new HES Proto-AXI provides a unique host interface with AMBA AXI4 interconnect that can be used to bridge the prototyped design to either a PC host (via PCIe interface) or a Xilinx Zynq/ARM Cortex embedded host. Interrupts support allows for the replacement of register pooling with asynchronous interrupt events from hardware to software, thus enabling more robust test applications. The addition of a Python wrapper to HES Proto-AXI API further empowers rapid software development. With such strong software support and a ready-to-use HES Proto-AXI Host Interface, Aldec HES boards can also be used as hardware accelerators for algorithms in HPC as well as High Frequency Trading (HFT) applications.
Aldec – www.aldec.com