Ecosystem for Intel® FPGA and Intel® SoC FPGA Devices
System on Module (SoM)
The SoM market is growing at a rapid pace, and is enabling a wider range of users to adopt FPGA-based platforms than ever before.
A SoM is a turn-key hardware solution to address the challenges inherent in developing a product and to meet competitive market demands. Depending on the application, there are many SoM options to choose from. SoMs are available with a diverse range of interconnect options that can be used with a custom, cost-reduced, and application specific baseboard. SoMs are a great vehicle to take advantage of the versatility of an FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array).
Intel FPGA SoM partner products provide advantages in designing your products, such as shorter time to market and lower total cost & risk. They are available with Intel® MAX®, Intel® Cyclone®, Intel® Arria®, Intel® Stratix®, and Intel® Agilex™ devices.
Advantages
Low Risk
Using a SoM reduces risks associated with design, verification, and board bring up. Using a standard, proven SoM product reduces the complexity of board design, meaning complex PCB design and verification isn’t needed. With SoMs, component sourcing is simplified, leading to more predictable design-cycles and business results.
Fast Time to Market
Many SoMs are available with a validated BSP (board support package) and design examples that can help you get started quickly. Also, with SoMs you can develop application software on the same production-ready hardware that you develop on, without needing to port your design from a development kit.
Versatile Design
From a broad Intel FPGA Partner offering, you can select a SoM to meet your end customer’s requirements. These FPGA-based SoMs allow you to adapt to evolving requirements by using reprogrammable hardware with custom carrier boards. This allows for lower development effort compared to a full hardware redesign from scratch.
Applications
SoMs are widely adopted in many applications due to their adaptable architecture and ease-of-use design.
Partner Spotlight
GigaSoM by Exor International
This SoM combines an Intel Atom® E39xx processor and Intel® Cyclone® 10 GX FPGA in a small form factor (82 x 54mm) to enable Smart Factory applications. This innovative SoM drives IT (Information Technology) and OT (Operational Technology) convergence by enabling integration of traditional industrial field buses and TSN (Time-Sensitive Networking). It supports workload consolidation, for example, of multiple virtualized PLCs. It’s ready for commercial deployment supporting -40 to +85C operational temperature range.
FAQs
Frequently Asked Questions
System on Modules (SoMs) are small, highly integrated single-board computers that include DRAM, flash memory, power management, common interface controllers, and board support package (BSP) software. SoMs help you create a fully customized embedded design without starting from scratch.
Benefits for using SoMs:
- Faster time to market by off-loading complex board design.
- Production ready hardware for immediate deployment.
- Versatile product design and application fit from various partners.
- Minimize component supplier management.
Intel and its FPGA-SoM partners provide unmatched value from processor choice (x86, Arm or Nios®), wide performance and density range of FPGA fabric (Intel® Max® and Intel® Agilex®) and Global partner ecosystem.
Intel® SoC FPGAs Ecosystem
Intel® SoC FPGAs are Arm processor-based and inherit the strength of the Arm ecosystem. Intel, our ecosystem partners, and the Intel® SoC FPGA user community provide a wide range of options to meet your SoC FPGA development needs.
Operating Systems
Intel® SoC FPGAs include a sophisticated high-performance multicore Arm processor subsystem. This processor can be used for a wide range of functions from very simple bare-metal applications running on one of the available cores to high-bandwidth, low-latency, real-time operations. For a simple single-core application with minimal real-time constraints, bare-metal application can be build using the provided Hardware Libraries (HWLIBs). However, to take full advantage of the capabilities of the device, it is highly recommended to use an operating system (OS). The chosen operating system can be a simple real-time kernel running on a single-core or a full-featured operating system such as Linux, or one of a number of multicore-capable real-time operating systems.
In addition to open-source Linux operating system, there are a number of commercial operating systems available for Intel® SoC FPGAs.
You can obtain Linux operating system and open-source products for Intel® SoC FPGAs on RocketBoards.org. This site provides a development environment and collaboration for embedded developers using SoC FPGAs. For information about the Golden System Reference Design that comes pre-installed on the Intel® SoC FPGA boards, search rocketboards.org for “GSRD”.
Operating System |
Company |
|---|---|
Code Time Technologies |
|
Intel |
|
MontaVista |
|
DDC-I |
|
eCosCentric |
|
eSOL |
|
FreeRTOS.org |
|
Green Hills Software |
|
Siemens |
|
QNX |
|
Quadros Systems Inc. |
|
Microsoft |
|
Micrium |
|
uC3 (Japanese language) |
eForce |
Wind River |
|
Wind River |
Development Tools
For professional quality development tools including JTAG debuggers and instruction trace functions consider the following options:
Product |
Company |
Description |
|---|---|---|
Intel |
Software development and debug tools for the Intel SoC FPGA devices based on ARM Development Studio. Use with Intel FPGA Download Cable II JTAG debugger tool or with ARM DSTREAM tools for JTAG debugging and high-speed instruction Trace. |
|
Green Hills |
Software development and debug tools for Green Hills INTEGRITY real-time operating system. MULTI is complemented with the Green Hills Probe for high-speed JTAG debugging. |
|
PolyCore Software, Micrium |
PolyCore Software and Micrium support Cyclone® V SoCs with a multicore solution. This development environment gives users a time-tested message-passing programming model and a trusted Real Time Operating System (RTOS), and makes it easy to create new multicore designs. |
|
MathWorks |
Use Simulink and Embedded Coder from MathWorks to generate C/C++ code for Cyclone V SoCs. When used in combination with Intel® SoC FPGA support from HDL Coder, this solution can be utilized in a hardware/software workflow spanning simulation, prototyping, verification, and implementation on Intel® SoC FPGAs. |
|
Siemens |
GNU toolchain support for the dual-core Arm Cortex-A9 MPCore processor-based SoC Virtual Target. |
|
Lauterbach |
Lauterbach TRACE32 is family of modular microprocessor development tools that include debug, trace, and instruction-set simulators that support the Nios® II processor and the dual-core Arm* Cortex*-A9 MPCore* processor-based SoC. |
|
Wind River |
Software development tools for VxWorks on the dual-core Arm Cortex-A9 MPCore processor in Cyclone® V SoCs and Arria® V SoCs. |
IP Cores
Intel® SoC FPGAs are supported by a wide range of third-party as well as soft intellectual property (IP) cores. These blocks can be instantiated in the FPGA portion of the SoC device. Some examples of key SoC soft IP cores are:
IP |
Company |
Description |
|---|---|---|
Graphics Rendering |
2D, 2.5D, 3D, and HD graphics rendering with support for EGL 1.3, OpenGL ES 1.1, OpenVG 1.01 APIs |
Nios® II Soft Processor
The Nios® II processor, the world's most versatile processor, according to Gartner Research, is the most widely used soft processor in the FPGA industry. The Nios® II processor delivers unprecedented flexibility for your cost-sensitive, real-time, safety-critical (DO-254), ASIC-optimized, and applications processing needs. The Nios® II processor supports all of our SoC and FPGA families.
Intel® Partner Alliance
The Intel® Partner Alliance is a program designed to enhance the value, relevance, and the experience we deliver to our partners. The unification of former Intel partner programs, such as the Design Solutions Network and the FPGA Partner Program, allows Intel and its partners to continue to drive the industry to innovate solutions with powerful technology. These investments help enable disruption and accelerate new market opportunities in an increasingly data-centric world. From leading edge technologies to sophisticated sales enablement and powerful partner networking, the Intel® Partner Alliance connects partners to a world of innovation.
Standalone Boards
Standalone boards are sometimes included as part of a development kit. A development kit typically includes software and hardware. The Intel® SoC FPGA development kits include the board and all associated cables, documentation, and software development tools (SoC EDS and Arm Development Studio for Intel® SoC FPGAs (Arm DS for Intel® SoC FPGAs).
Embedded Operating Systems
| Operating System | Supplier |
|---|---|
| eCosPro | eCosCentric |
| eCos | Zylin |
| embOS | Segger |
| Euros | Euros |
| FreeRTOS | FreeRTOS |
| Linux | RocketBoards.org (Open Source Community) |
| µC/OS-II (Evaluation is included with the Nios® II Embedded Design Suite but it is licensed separately) | Micrium |
| TargetOS | Blunk Microsystems |
| ThreadX | Express Logic |
| Toppers | Toppers |
| µCLinux | Intel® FPGA Wiki (Open Source Community) |
| Zephyr | Zephyr (Linux* Foundation Projects) |
Middleware and Graphics Libraries
| Company Name | OS Supported | Network Stack | File System | Graphics Library | USB Stack | Miscellaneous |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| eCosCentric | eCosPro | Built-in | Built-in | - | - | - |
| Express Logic | ThreadX | NetX | FileX | GUIX | USBX | - |
| Mentor Graphics* | Nucleus | Nucleus Networking | Nucleus Storage | Nucleus UI | Nucleus USB | - |
| Micrium | µC/OS-II | Micrium TCP/IP | µC/OS-FS | µC/OS GUI | Micrium USB | µC/OS CAN |
| Micro Digital | Any | - | - | - | - | GoFast Floating Point Library |
| uGFX | Any | - | - | uGFX | - | - |
Software Development Tools
| Company | Product | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Mentor Embedded | Sourcery CodeBench | GNU toolchain support for embedded Linux on the Nios® II processor. |
| Altium | Tasking Toolset | Optimizing C compiler, assembler, linker, and locator. |
| MIPS (formerly FS2) |
System Navigator | The System Navigator probe for Nios® II processors is designed to support the special features and integrated peripherals of the Nios® II cores embedded in Intel® FPGAs. |
| RocketBoard.org (Open-source community) |
Linux* Toolchain | Linux toolchain from the RocketBoard.org (open-source community). |
| Intel FPGA Wiki (Open-source community) |
µCLinux Toolchain | µLinux toolchain from the Intel® FPGA Wiki (open-source community). |