We Love FPGAs!

With their immense DSP bandwidth, today’s FPGAs are the obvious choice when large amounts of data need to be processed on the fly. Many complex processing steps can easily be implemented within the same IC, handling the incoming data in parallel or sequentially.

We have put the enormous processing power of FPGAs to good use in the digital imaging field, where they are more useful than ever when it comes to dealing with Ultra HD formats like 4K and 8K. Applications include color pipelines, image enhancement functions and real-time compression for high-end cameras and advanced driver assistance systems.

Our projects also include various complex industrial and medical systems that rely on the versatility and flexible nature of FPGAs. One example would be laser scanning systems, where we have implemented advanced algorithms like Fast Fourier transforms, digital filters, vector calculation and scan field correction as FPGA IP cores.

These laser scanning systems are also an excellent example for many of the measurement and control technologies we have realized via FPGAs: Supervising temperature, pressure, leakage, humidity, scattered light as well as various voltages and currents while controlling moveable mirrors to steer the laser beam and handling various security functions.

FPGAs are dependable components of countless safety-critical systems, helping achieve functional safety. Examples are supervision of components or ensuring real-time reactions to critical events like leaving a defined safe state.

We have experience with safety-critical applications and the increased data security and latency demands of industrial networking solutions. One example is a custom network interface using Precision Time Protocol (PTP), enabling the synchronization of clocks throughout a system with a clock accuracy in the nanosecond range.

Embedded within our robust hardware designs, FPGAs are well-suited to meet the demands of hard real-time systems that require an immediate response and deterministic behavior. Examples would be dead man’s switches and various watchdog implementations. Bringing both the networking and the real-time aspects together, one of our applications features a customer-specific bus for sensors and actuators with a real-time channel for emergency stop functionality.

Modern FPGAs have evolved beyond just being advanced logic elements. Some models are available as SoC versions, adding a hard CPU core to the package – examples are the powerful ARM® CPUs in FPGAs from AMD, Intel and Microchip.

We are taking advantage of this combination of FPGA processing power and CPU intelligence in Smart Vision applications like intelligent frame grabbing systems, enabling low-latency access to image data, for example for pattern recognition. Our experience with complete systems ensures that our FPGA designs and the application software for your project are perfectly matched.

While most stand-alone FPGA designs use the established Wishbone bus, we have also developed an AMBA-AXI-based framework for FPGAs with ARM® CPUs, enabling ultra-fast communication between the CPU, the FPGA and the DDR memory. Its flexibility makes it a smart choice for rapid application prototyping.

We like the “complete package” approach of FPGAs with SoC capabilities and their low power consumption, as they make them ideal for our high-density board designs whenever PCB surface area and space for cooling elements are scarce. And by using the standard buses like CAN, I²C, SPI and 1-Wire usually offered by the CPU component, we can save FPGA resources for your project’s specific processing and I/O needs.

And even when a hard CPU core is not available, we have years of experience using various types of soft CPUs implemented as FPGA IP cores. This way we can add intelligence to your FPGA without adding more hardware.