It seems FPGAs are getting bigger and faster all the time. FPGA vendors continue to integrate more transceivers running at higher speeds in their newest ICs. As an example, the Xilinx Virtex UltraScale+ VU13P FPGA contains 128 GTY transceivers running data rates up to 32.75 Gbps.
The increase in number and speed of transceivers on the FPGAs complements the Samtec roadmap of next-generation high-speed board-to-board connectors. Late last year, Samtec announced the availability of a family of mezzanine connectors compliant to the ANSI/VITA 57.4-2016 standard. Samtec’s FMC+ connectors support the expanded interface and faster speeds of the latest FMC+ applications.
VITA 57.4 FMC+ ChalkTalk
Samtec has launched a new Chalk Talk On-Demand Webinar with EE Journal entitled “ANSI/VITA 57.4-2016 FMC+ – The New Frontier of FPGA Expansion Cards.” This new webinar details all of the updates from VITA 57.1 FMC to VITA 57.4 FMC+.
Some of the details of the webinar are previewed below.
VITA 57.4 Updates
What are the key changes VITA 57.4 FMC+ makes over VITA 57.1 FMC? There are three key areas:
- Increases multi-gigabit interfaces from 10 to 32
- Increases multi-gigabit interface data rates from 10 Gbps to 28 Gbps
- Maintain backwards compatibility with VITA 57.1 FMC modules
The approach VITA 57.4 chose to accomplish these goals was to define two mated connector pairs that embody the new FMC+ electromechanical interface: the High Serial Pin Count (HSPC) connector and a second optional High Serial Pin Count extension (HSPCe) connector.
The combination of HSPC and HSPCe connectors enables support of up to 32 multi-gigabit interfaces running at 28 Gbps. This provides maximum system level throughput of 896 Gbps.
The Application Specific Product (ASP) versions of SEARAY™ adopted by VITA 57.4 support the FMC+ applications like high-speed ADCs and DACs, next generation RF connectivity, high-speed serial memory and high-density fiber optics.
VITA 57.4 FMC+ Connectors – FPGA Baseboard Side Connector
- HSPC Connector, 560 I/O, female – ASP-184329-01
- HSPCe Connector, 80 I/O, female – ASP-186899-01
VITA 57.4 FMC+ Connectors – Mezzanine Card Side Connector
- HSPC Connector, 560 I/O, male, 10mm – ASP-184330-01
- HSPC Connector, 560 I/O, male, 8.5mm – ASP-188588-01
- HSPCe Connector, 80 I/O, male, 10mm – ASP-186900-01
- HSPCe Connector, 80 I/O, male, 8.5mm – ASP-196174-01