FPGAs Reach Performance Milestone for Edge Compute Systems

Edge compute systems need compact programmable devices with low power consumption and a small enough thermal footprint to eliminate fans and other heat mitigation while providing robust compute horsepower. Microchip Technology Inc. has solved this challenge by cutting static power consumption for its mid-bandwidth Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) and FPGA System-on-Chip (SoC) devices in half and giving them the smallest thermal footprint and best performance and compute horsepower compared to all alternative devices in their class.

“Our new PolarFire FPGAs and FPGA SoCs reduce our customers’ system costs while enabling them to solve difficult thermal management challenges without having to forfeit bandwidth,” said Bruce Weyer, vice president of Microchip’s FPGA business unit. “The award-winning PolarFire FPGA platform already delivered the industry’s best combination of power and performance, and now we have reduced power consumption by up to 50 percent or more with the introduction of lower density offerings, while maintaining best-in-class capabilities on these platforms. No other offering in this class can match these capabilities.”

With their ultra-low power consumption, Microchip’s latest low-density PolarFire FPGAs and PolarFire SoC additions exceed the performance/power metrics of any low-density FPGA or SoC FPGA alternatives in the market, with fast FPGA fabric and signal processing capabilities, the most capable transceivers and the industry’s only hardened application class RISC-V architecture-based processor complex with 2 megabytes (MB) of L2 cache and Low-Power DDR4 (LPDDR4) memory support. Extending the portfolio with a 25K logic elements multi-core RISC-V SoC and a 50K logic elements FPGA opens new application possibilities. They are ideal for low-power smart embedded vision applications and thermally constrained automotive, industrial automation, communications, defense and IoT systems where neither power nor performance can be compromised.

The new PolarFire devices are complemented by a suite of Microchip devices for complete systems solutions for applications including smart embedded vision, machine learning, security, aerospace and defense, and embedded compute. They also provide plug-and-play solutions for power and timing designs. Lead customers are using the PolarFire devices to solve a variety of design challenges.

Availability

Developers can begin designing with Microchip’s PolarFire FPGAs and FPGA SoCs now using the company’s recently released Libero® 2021.2 software tools, which are available on the company’s website. Volume shipment of production silicon is scheduled for the first calendar quarter of 2022. Complete product information is available here.