Xilinx Announces SDSoC Development Environment for All Programmable SoCs and MPSoCs

Company extends its SDx product family and continues to expand its user base to the broad community of systems and software engineers

SAN JOSE, Calif., March 9, 2015 -- Xilinx, Inc. (NASDAQ:XLNX) today announced the SDSoC™ Development Environment for All Programmable SoCs and MPSoCs. The third member of the Xilinx® SDx™ family of development environments, the SDSoC development environment enables the broader community of embedded software developers to leverage the power of hardware and software 'all programmable' devices. The SDSoC environment provides a greatly simplified ASSP-like programming experience including an easy to use Eclipse integrated design environment (IDE) and a comprehensive development platform for heterogeneous Zynq® All Programmable SoCs and MPSoCs deployment. Complete with the industry's first C/C++ full-system optimizing compiler, SDSoC delivers system level profiling, automated SW acceleration in programmable logic, automated system connectivity generation, and libraries to speed programming. It also enables end user and 3^rd party platform developers to rapidly define, integrate, and verify system level solutions and enable their end customers with a customized programming environment.

ASSP-Like Programming Experience
Used by systems and embedded software engineers, SDSoC provides an Eclipse IDE with C/C++ running on bare metal or operating systems such as Linux and FreeRTOS as its input. SDSoC enables the creation of complete heterogeneous multi-processing systems, including reuse of legacy HDL IP Blocks as C-callable libraries. Unlike traditional separate hardware-centric and software-centric flows, which can result in development delays and uncertainty in system architecture and performance, SDSoC is architected to provide rapid system profiling, SW acceleration in programmable logic, and system architecture exploration in a familiar framework.

Full System Optimizing Compiler
SDSoC supplies a full system optimizing compiler targeting both the ARM processors and the programmable logic. SDSoC is designed to enable software teams to rapidly configure, generate macro and micro architectures with automated system connectivity generation. The result is optimal system connectivity and memory interfaces, and rapid system exploration of performance, throughput, and latency with short design iteration times. The compiler leverages a foundational high-level synthesis compiler technology that is utilized by more than 1,000 programmers. In addition, SDSoC provides Xilinx libraries and optional hardware optimized libraries from Alliance Member Auviz Systems, to unharness the high performance and low power acceleration of programmable logic.

System Level Profiling
Building on the advanced software profiling found today in the Xilinx SDK, which enables software-hardware performance measurement of a completed design running on a Zynq platform, SDSoC adds rapid system performance estimation. Leveraging the rapid system performance estimation, users can specify which functions should be accelerated in programmable logic and SDSoC instruments the C/C++ code to report software cycles and estimates for the data transfer as well as overall application speedup. This enables early and rapid generation and exploration for optimal total system performance and power.

Expert Use Model for Platform Developers
SDSoC provides Board Support Packages (BSP) for Zynq All Programmable SoC-based development boards including the ZC702, ZC706, as well as third party and market specific platforms including the Zedboard, MicroZed, ZYBO, and Video and Imaging development kits. The BSPs include metadata abstracting the platform from software developers and system architects easing the creation, integration, and verification of smarter heterogeneous systems. With either Xilinx provided or customer created platforms SDSoC is enabling true software-configurable smarter systems.

"With Xilinx's new SDSoC Development Environment, in combination with the MicroZed board-based vision platform and Xylon logicBRICKS™ intellectual property for embedded graphics and video, nontraditional FPGA developers are now empowered to rapidly configure, prototype, and develop a complete smart vision system in a familiar C/C++ based workflow," said Davor Kovacec, founder and CEO of Xylon. "This combination will truly open up the power and potential of All Programmable SoCs and MPSoCs to all design teams."

Availability
To access the capabilities of SDSoC early access release, please contact your local sales representative. To learn more visit www.xilinx.com/sdsoc.

About SDx
SDx is a family of development environments for systems and software engineers. SDx enables developers with little or no FPGA expertise to use high level programming languages to leverage the power of programmable hardware with industry standard processors. To learn more visit www.xilinx.com/sdx.

About Xilinx
Xilinx is the world's leading provider of All Programmable FPGAs, SoCs and 3D ICs. These industry-leading devices are coupled with a next-generation design environment and IP to serve a broad range of customer needs, from programmable logic to programmable systems integration. For more information, visit www.xilinx.com.

Quote Sheet

"Xilinx and Analog Devices have collaborated to develop the Zynq SDR System Development kit that accelerates rapid prototyping of wideband radio applications through the abstraction of an accompanying SW stack running Linux on the Zynq processing system. ADI now supports the new SDSoC development environment for this platform that allows customers to rapidly configure, prototype, and develop both the communication (L2/L3) and physical layers (L1) of the wireless communication protocol from a software centric development environment."
Robin Getz, Engineering Manager, ADI

"Van Gogh Imaging develops object recognition solutions (based on 3D computer vision technique) for embedded devices in markets such as medicine, UAV, robotics, security, automotive, and machine vision. As pure software engineers, we were able to take a 3D object recognition concept to an accelerated Zynq design within a month achieving an order of magnitude speedup (and smaller form factor) compared to our x86 solution. We believe that SDSoC is the future of Zynq programming!"
Ken Lee, CEO, Van Gogh Imaging

"DAVE Embedded Systems' BORA module features a Xilinx Zynq-7000 SoC and is suitable for high-end applications such as medical instrumentation, advanced communication systems, critical real-time operations, and safety applications. This platform combined with Xilinx's new SDSoC is empowering software engineers with an ASSP-like development environment, which enables rapid system level profiling and program acceleration leveraging its full system optimizing compiler. SDSoC is truly enabling software engineers to take advantage of acceleration in programmable logic all will working in familiar C/++."
Manuele Papais, Sales and Marketing Manager, DAVE Embedded Systems

"The Iveia Atlas-I-Z7e is a low power, small form factor processing module featuring the Xilinx Zynq-7000 All Programmable SoC. The platform is ideal for video applications since the complex video co-processing occurs on the same device using the combined processing elements of the programmable logic and ARM processors. Leveraging SDSoC one of our software engineers was able to complete a complex canny edge detection system for a 1080p embedded vision system rapidly mapping five software accelerators to the programmable logic in a manner of days with no hardware designer intervention. This type of productivity is not seen in current design flows offered by other vendors."
Mike Fawcett, founder and CEO, iVeia