4DSP, at the heart of innovation

FPGAs have now been around for many years and what used to be a simple logic array with few hundred gates has now turned into a platform with tremendous amount of resources suitable for all kind of processing. Bundled with parallel Arithmetic and Logic Units, Phase Locked Loops, interfaces and controllers, FPGAs do not suffer the performance comparison with the best General Purpose Processors (GPP) or Digital Signal Processors (DSP) available on the market. FPGAs have simply become the best! There is no doubt that the versatility of programmable devices is the key to the continuous success they embrace. However in a world that moves always faster and where projects cycles are shortened due to the time to market constraints, FPGA tools have failed so far in meeting designer expectations.

Getting an FPGA design to operate just fine was (and still is!) more in the range of getting an ASIC to work than using a comprehensive debugging tool offered with standard processors. In an effort to reverse the tide, FPGA manufacturers started offering IP cores and tools that would allow dragging and dropping functionality into a design, thus minimizing the debugging effort. This concept works beautifully and it can be regarded as a major step forward.

Typically, DSP algorithms require large data vectors to be computed as well as the execution of many relatively small but complex instructions. The introduction in FPGAs of embedded soft and hard processors that can run C type programs has now given to FPGAs the ability to compete with traditional DSP devices. However generic solutions that can harness the power of FPGAs and turn them into programmable platforms accessible to non FPGA engineers were so far non existent.

By combining in the same device a RISC 32-bit processor (NIOS-II or Microblaze) and massively parallel calculation engines and interfaces, 4DSP offers to its customers the most efficient and flexible FPGA architecture ever produced.

and this is revolutionizing the processing world…

This high-end architecture is designed to operate in systems where integration space, power consumption and performances are critical. Contact us at info@4dsp.com and one of our specialists will assist you.