Xilinx introduced new Artix and Zynq UltraScale+ chips that are 70 per cent smaller than traditional chips for use in cameras and other gear deployed in industrial, vision, healthcare and other markets.
The new hardware is based on 16 nm technology and relies on TSMC’s Integrated Fan-Out (InFO) packaging process for high-compute density and performance per watt.
LUCID Vision Labs also announced it worked with Xilinx to integrate a new UltraScale+ ZU3, one of the Zynq family, into its next-gen industrial machine vision camera called the Triton Edge. Using the ZU3 with InFO packaging, LUCID uses a new rigid-flex board architecture ‘to squeeze an amazing amount of processing power into an ultra-compact IP67, factory-tough camera,’ said LUCID President Rod Barman in a statement.
Industrial cameras are often used to analyse manufacturing processes to judge if factory machines are working properly or showing wear and tear. Packaged goods can also be quickly analysed for imperfections in an assembly line.
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Also in the Zynq family with InFO packaging are the ZU1 and ZU2 in the multiprocessing System-on-Chip line. The ZU1 is designed for connectivity at the edge, including for IoT systems that could use embedded vision cameras used in handheld testing.
The Artix UltraScale+ is a family of Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) that Xilinx described as ideal for machine vision with advanced sensors, networking and ultra-compact 8K video broadcasting. The FPGAs have 16Gbps transceivers for networking, vision and video.
Both Artix and Zynq families include security used in other UltraScale+ devices, with RSA-4095 authentication, AES, CGM-decryption and Differential Power Analysis attack countermeasures. Xilinx also provides its Security Monitor IP that the company claims adapt to security threats across the product lifecycle.
Dan Mandell, a senior analyst for IoT and embedded technology at VDC Research called the expansion of the UltraScale+ line ‘compelling’ because of new business in growth markets such as IoT.
‘Xilinx has taken a big step forward toward supporting more systems at the edge and embedded with endpoint devices themselves,’ Mandell said in an email. Xilinx has been able to retain the Xilinx high-performance processing capabilities of previous generations with the new lower power and smaller form factor Artix and Zynq devices.
‘OEMs and systems integrators can more easily add support for new workloads on their devices like edge analytics, AI, virtualisation, as well as emerging interfaces and protocols fueling these workloads,’ Mandell added.
