Wednesday 30 November 2016

BittWorks II Toolkit - Is it Even Necessary for my FPGA Development?

What is a Software Toolkit? 
Putting it simply, a software development toolkit is a set of tools that provides an interface between a hardware platform and a host system. Toolkits are critical if you want fast time to market. This is especially important for BittWare customers...

Why do I Need One?
BittWare has leveraged years of experience to provide a solid base for developers to make a start on their application, and the Toolkit has been an integral part of existing customer's success. They have been able to see first hand the value of the BittWorks tools, because they are so critical in getting projects up and running quickly. This software allows BittWare to properly support our customers.

More: BittWorks Toolkit

The BittWorks II Toolkit is a suite of development tools for BittWare’s FPGA-based hardware. The Toolkit includes drivers, libraries, utilities, and example projects for accessing, integrating, and developing applications for the BittWare board. Utilities and drivers connect the board to the host via PCIe, USB, Ethernet, or serial port, and provide easy access to the board’s system monitoring features and Flash programming.

Extensive libraries provide a consistent, intuitive API for integrating the board into the system and example projects illustrate data movement and provide a starting point for development. The Toolkit supports 64-bit Windows and Linux platforms and is tightly integrated with BittWare’s FPGA Development Kit (FDK), which provides FPGA board support IP and integration for BittWare’s FPGA-based boards.

The Nerdy Stuff
The BittWorks II datasheet is a great tool and clearly outlines what is provided and how it can help you get your application up and running quickly.

View Datasheet

Do I Need To Pay For It?
Well, yes. But BittWare doesn't currently charge for support (unlike some of the other board manufacturers in this market space) and this is only possible because of the development tools available. If a developer has the BittWorks Toolkit BittWare are able to provide the utilities they need to use the board as well as provide known working examples for the customers to leverage.

Toolkit licenses are handled per project/per location.  For a single project at one location there is a maximum of 3 licenses to be purchased. This means is that if there are 10 developers working on Project X you only need to buy 3 licenses.

Tell Me More...
If you'd like more information on how the BittWorks Toolkit and FDK can help speed up your development on both Intel (Altera) and Xilinx FPGA based hardware please get in touch with one of our specialists: info@sarsen.net

Friday 25 November 2016

PCIe Board with Intel (Altera) Arria 10 GX FPGA Machine Learning Demonstration


BittWare took part in Super Computing 2016 last week, and used the event to showcase their must-see FPGA demos in network packet processing (NPP) and high-performance computing (HPC). If you were at the show you will also have seen BittWare's wide range of the latest Intel (formerly Altera) and Xilinx FPGA-based boards on display.



One of the demonstrations featured BittWare’s A10PL4 board, using Intel’s deep learning IP core loaded on the Arria 10 FPGA.

The A10PL4 from BittWare is an Altera Arria 10 FPGA PCIe board offering plenty of high speed serial I/O interfaces and debug support. Two QSFP cages are available, both connected to the Arria 10 FPGA removing latency in the external PHYs. The A10PL4 supports up to 32GB of DDR4 as well as flash memory with factory default and support for multiple FPGA images.


 
Machine Learning

'Machine Learning' is based on the development of computer programs that can learn and create their own rules. In deep learning, a task can be learned by the machine from a vast amount of data, either in supervised or unsupervised manner.

With the Deep Learning IP customers can leverage Intel Caffe in the Data Analytics Acceleration Library (DAAL) and Intel MKL-DNN to build AlexNet- or GoogleNet-like topologies without requiring a recompilation of the FPGA.

Accelerating machine learning applications like these are an excellent fit for FPGAs and OpenCL. Up to 16 A10PL4s can be combined inside a 4U server for a total of 18M logic elements and 512 GBytes of DDR4 memory.

Find out more - Terabox

For more information please speak to one of our FPGA specialists - +44 1672 511166 or send us an email - info@sarsen.net 



Friday 11 November 2016

Coaxial, Fibre Optic, AV, and Networking Solutions, Oh My!

As part of our ongoing commitment to our customers to provide complete solutions for a wide range of applications, we recently partnered with Milestek - supplier of all things connector, cabling, switching, tools and test equipment.



www.milestek.com

For over thirty years now Milestek has been providing quality products that are used in computer networking, military/aerospace, telecommunications and audio/video markets all over the world. With over 3 decades of experience in this sector they are positioned as one of the best choices when it comes to military R&D and production applications.


The product line includes bus couplers, custom harnesses and assemblies, connectors and connector termination systems, as well as a broad range of related accessories. With AS9100 certification Milestek is ideally situated to serve the military avionics, industrial communities, and government markets.

Milestek product lines:
  • Racks & Enclosures
  • Networking Products
  • Surveillance Devices
  • Power Strips & Cords
  • Structured Media Centres
  • Cable Management
  • Label Printers
  • Bulk Cable
  • Connectors & Adapters
  • AV Devices
  • Cable Assemblies
  • Fibre Optics
  • Tools & Testers
For  more information please contact Sarsen Technology.

Tuesday 1 November 2016

VersaLogic Releases 'Raven' - Embedded SFF Computer based on Intel Bay Trail Processor


The team at VersaLogic has just announced the release of the Raven - a compact and rugged embedded x86 computer built around the Intel Bay Trail processor.

See Raven datasheet (pdf)

This is VersaLogic's fourth product released in the Embedded Processing Unit (EPU) format. EPU's combine processor, memory, video, and system I/O into an extremely compact full function embedded computer.

The Raven, equipped with an Intel Atom 38xx processor, is designed to withstand extreme temperature, impact, and vibration. It has been engineered and tested to meet the military and medical industries' evolving requirements to develop smaller, lighter, and lower power embedded systems while adhering to stringent regulatory standards.

Available in single-, dual-, and quad-core versions, the Raven provides great performance and I/O features, moderate power consumption (6 to 8W typical depending on model), and a compact package. The Raven provides compatibility with a broad range of standard x86 application development tools for reduced development time.

Features

  • Wide Range Voltage Input
    Accepts 8 to 30 volts DC with OVP, reverse polarity protection, and RF noise filtering.
  • High-performance Video
    Integrated Intel Gen 7 graphics core supports DirectX 11, OpenGL 4, and H.264, MPEG-2 encoding/decoding. Mini DisplayPort and LVDS video outputs. LVDS backlight control.
  • Network
    Dual Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) with remote boot support.
  • SATA
    3 Gb/s SATA port supports bootable SATA hard drive.
  • Mini PCIe Card Sockets
    Dual full-sized sockets. Supports A/D, Wi-Fi modems, GPS, MIL-STD-1553, Ethernet, flash data storage with auto-detect mSATA flash storage support, and other mini PCIe modules.
  • MicroSD Socket
    Supports removable microSD card solid-state drives.
  • Industrial I/O
    One USB 3.0 port and four USB 2.0 ports support keyboard, mouse, and other devices. Four RS-232/422/485 serial ports, three 8254 timer/counters, and I2C support.
  • Analog + Digital I/O
    On-board data acquisition support. Eight multi-range analog inputs and eight 3.3V digital I/O lines.
  • SPI Interface
    Supports SPI and SPX devices, including low cost analog and digital modules.
  • Intel Atom "Bay Trail" Processor
    Up to 1.9 GHz clock rate. Quad-, dual-, or single-core options. Low power consumption.
  • Fanless Operation
    No moving parts required for CPU cooling in most configurations.
  • Trusted Platform Module
    On-board TPM security chip can lock out unauthorised hardware and software.
  • RAM
    Up to 4 GB soldered-down DDR3L RAM.
  • FLASH
    Up to 8 GB of on-board eMMC flash storage.
  • Industrial Temperature Operation
    -40° to +85°C operation for harsh environments
  • MIL-STD-202G
    Qualified for high shock/vibration environments.
  • Software Support
    Compatible with a variety of popular x86 operating systems including Windows, Windows Embedded, Linux, and VxWorks.

The Raven is a newly released product. It may be available in limited quantities. Please contact Sarsen for more details.