Our highly efficient, Linux-based software application framework, PicoFramework, provides a vital link between your application software running on a host computer and the hardware algorithm, or firmware, implemented in the FPGA. PicoFramework is a powerful but invisible and active intelligence that runs and governs the board-level implementation of FPGA designs, as well as data flow, memory management, system communication, monitoring/debug, and more.

The PicoFramework eliminates the need to spend engineering time and money on FPGA implementation, overhead and connectivity functions, freeing up designers to focus on the details of the application design. As powerful as the framework is, it occupies as little as 1% of the FPGA area (and even less as FPGA densities increase).

Ease of Use:

• Load new configuration bitfiles
• Partition a design across multiple FPGAs in a system
• Move data from software into FPGAs via streaming or memory mapped models
• Easily scale from 1 to 10 streams (per FPGA) utilizing the development framework only
• Configure FPGA communication in a variety of ways, including multi-threaded, peer-to-peer, daisy chained, etc.

Software:

• Controls all communications; a 48-FPGA system is no more work than a single FPGA
• Automates all reading and writing to the FPGAs’ off-chip memory (firmware memory interfaces automate all memory systems’ arbitration)
• Automates all programming of the FPGA(s) in a system
• Actively monitors FPGA health (when available) to enhance system performance and reliability

Production software code can drive a simulation of the FPGA module:

• The same executable can talk to either a simulation model or a Micron ACS module
• Common test bench code eliminates test bench/software mismatch errors

Added Benefits:

• All drivers, including host-side (Unix), interface to host (PCI Express^®)
• PicoFramework API (C++)
• An integrated firmware test suite
• Reference designs and examples with source files
• Complete documentation