Product of the Week: Enclustra’s Andromeda XZU65 System-on-Chip Module

March 11, 2024

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Today’s growing applications require versatility, among a host of other capabilities, that allow developers to leverage the benefits of multiple platforms in a single solution. Applications like these demand modern solutions, further necessitating real-time processing, customizable hardware acceleration, parallel processing capabilities, and more.

One advanced, versatile solution equipped to meet these demands is the Andromeda XZU65 system-on-module (SoC) module from Enclustra. Also referred to as an FPGA-based System-On-Module, the Andromeda XZU65 solution features Xilinx's Zynq UltraScale+ MPSoC-series device comprised of an ARM quad-core Cortex-A53 processor for general-purpose computing in simpler applications, and the ARM dual-core Cortex-R5 for real-time and safety-critical applications.

Together, the FPGA board and the Zynq Ultrascale+ MPSoC sit at a small form factor of 68 × 52 mm, making the Andromeda XZU65 solution suitable for applications like high-speed communication, image processing, digital signal processing, data acquisition, and more.

Enclustra’s Andromeda XZU65 System-on-Chip Module in Action

The Xilinx Zynq Ultrascale+ MPSoC system further supports the Mali-400MP2 GPU which enables hardware acceleration for extensive graphics-related tasks, as well as acceleration for user interfaces and graphics rendering. The module also supports H.264 and H.265 video codecs (only for EV models) for multimedia tasks like video streaming, video conferencing, video processing, encoding, and decoding.

The Zynq UltraScale+ MPSoC supports programmable logic via the 16nm FinFET+ FPGA fabric which also supports advanced performance and power efficiency, as well as hardware acceleration and customization.

For memory and storage, the Andromeda XZU65 SoC module features up to 8 GB if DDR4 ECC SDRAM intended for use by the ARM processing system (PS) on the SoC, and up to 8 GB DDR4 SDRAM intended for use by the programmable logic (PL) portion. Additionally, the SoC module supports 128 MB of QSPI flash dual parallel and 16 GB eMMC flash.

For high-speed interfacing, the SoC module offers PCIe Gen 3 interface with ×16 lanes and PCIe Gen 2 interface with ×4 lanes. For high-speed communication, there are 24 MGTs, each supporting data transfer rates between 6 and 16.3 Gbit/sec, with four Gigabit transceivers and 20 GTH transceivers. Finally, there are two Gigabit Ethernet dedicated to both the processing system and the programmable logic portion.

Additional Features:

• USB 2.0/3.0 (host/device)
• Up to 653,100 LUT4-eq
• 322 user I/Os (three ADM6-60 Samtec connectors)
  • 22 ARM peripherals
  • 180 FPGA I/Os (24 HD + 156 HP)
  • 120 MGT signals (clock and data)
• 12 V single supply

Getting Started with Enclustra’s Andromeda XZU65 System-on-Chip Module

The Andromeda XZU65 system supports the Linux operating system with availability for the Linux BSP and tool chain. Futher, the operating system support includes BSP support for the DDR4 SDRAM, eMMC flash, Quad SPI flash, USB host, Gigabit Ethernet, I2C, and SD Card.

There’s also supplementary support for the U-boot bootloader, as well as user documentation for the Enclustra Build Environment via GitHub and PetaLinux Documentation vis GitHub.

Additional Resources:

• Product Page: https://www.enclustra.com/en/products/system-on-chip-modules/andromeda-xzu65/
• Andromeda SoM Product Family: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPni5TywV8A