BittWare S43X, Altera Stratix IV GX, VITA 57 – Sky Blue Microsystems GmbH

BittWare S43X | Altera Stratix IV GX FPGA | 10GigE | VITA 57 FMC | VPX | Serial I/O-based Applications

BittWare’s S4-3U-VPX (S43X) is a commercial or rugged 3U VPX card based on the high-density, low-power Altera Stratix IV GX FPGA. The Stratix IV GX is designed specifically for serial I/O-based applications, creating a completely flexible, reconfigurable VPX board. The board provides a configurable 25-port SerDes interface supporting a variety of protocols, including Serial RapidIO, PCI Express, and 10 GigE. The board also features 10/100/1000 Ethernet, and up to 4 GB of DDR3 SDRAM. Providing enhanced flexibility is the VITA 57-compliant FMC site, which supports 10 SerDes, 60 LVDS pairs, and 6 clocks.

The FMC (FPGA Mezzanine Card) site provides 8 high-performance SerDes, 60 LVDS pairs, 6 clocks, I2C, JTAG, and reset to the Stratix IV GX. The connector is compliant with the VITA 57 mezzanine standard for FPGA I/O, enabling designers to customize the S43X to their individual needs with optional FMC I/O boards.

The Altera Stratix IV GX was specifically designed for serial I/O-based applications requiring high-density, reconfigurable logic. The Stratix IV GX provides 23 high-performance, full-duplex, multi-gigabit transceivers, supporting PCI Express (Rev 1.0/2.0), 10 GigE, GigE, Serial RapidIO (Rev 1.0/2.0), and SerialLite II standards. It contains up to 530k equivalent LEs, over 20 Mbits of embedded memory, and 1,024 embedded 18×18 multipliers.

BittWare’s FINe III Host/Control Bridge (see Figure 2) implements a complete control plane interface for the S43X, facilitating separate control and data planes, and greatly simplifying the development of data plane I/O and processing. BittWare’s BittWorks software tools provide extensive software support and are tightly integrated with the FINe. The FINe provides GigE via the rear panel, along with 10/100 Ethernet and an RS-232 monitor port via a utility header, and it is connected to the FPGA via a local control bus.

Features

I/O Interfaces

A debug utility header provides 10/100 Ethernet, RS-232, and a JTAG port for debug support. The rear panel VPX interface includes GigE to the FINe, and 15 SerDes channels and 32 LVDS pairs (16 in, 16 out) to the Stratix IV GX FPGA.

Development Tools

BittWare offers complete software support for the S43X with its BittWorks II software tools. The BittWorks II Toolkit is a collection of libraries and applications for BittWare’s Stratix IV and V FPGA-based boards. Designed to make developing and debugging the applications for BittWare’s boards easy and efficient, the Toolkit provides the glue between the host application and the hardware. The Toolkit supports 32-bit, and 64-bit Windows and Linux platforms.

BittWare S43X accelerator diagram showing key hardware elements e.g. GigE, 15 channels SerDes, 32 LVDS pairs, 10/100 Ethernet, RS-232, JTAG, etc.
Hardware accelerator diagram: BittWare S43X with VITA 57 FMC module site.

Product Data

BittWare S43X is a single slot VPX 3U card with Altera Stratix IV GX FPGA supports PCI Express rev 1.0/2.0, 10 GigE, GigE, Serial RapidIO rev 1.0/2.0, and SerialLite II standards, as well as many others.
S43X is a single slot VPX 3U board with Altera Stratix IV GX.
FINe III Host/Control Bridge architecture scheme of BittWare S43X showing key elements.
FINe III architecture overview: S43X is equipped with FINe III Host/Control Bridge.
BittWorks II Toolkit include BwMonitor app provides a view into the board management capabilities like live board power and temperature display of BittWare hardware.
BwMonitor is a part of the BittWorks II Toolkit: provides live board power and temperature display of BittWare hardware.