S2C announces Virtex-6 based 4th generation rapid SoC prototyping solution

SAN JOSE, USA: S2C Inc., a rapid SoC prototyping provider, has released its fourth-generation rapid SoC prototyping tool, V6 TAI Logic Module, based on Xilinx’s 40-nm Virtex field-programmable-gate-array (FPGA).

Each dual V6 TAI logic module comes with two Virtex-6 XC6VLX760 FPGAs, each featuring 759K logic cells. The Dual V6 TAI Logic Module supplies up to 15.2 million ASIC gates of capacity and provides 1,280 external I/O connections. Multiple TAI logic modules can be stacked or mounted on a interconnect motherboard to meet even larger gate count needs.

S2C’s 4th generation logic modules have many significant improvements over the third-generation product. In addition to more than doubling the logic and memory capacity that can fit on single board, the new TAI Logic Module facilitates much higher system prototype performance and reliability through enhanced power management, clock management, cooling mechanisms and noise shielding.

Leadcore Technology Co. Ltd has been using the Virtex 5 based TAI logic modules. Leadcore, a leading TD-SCDMA terminal solutions provider, is the core member of Datang Telecom Technology & Industry Group. Its main customers include ZTE and LG.

Wang Pei, manager of Testing and Technical Support Division at Leadcore said: "We have very successfully been using S2C’s TAI Logic Modules as an integral part of our SoC design flow. We plan on using the new Virtex 6 TAI Logic Module for our next generation products."

The V6 TAI logic modules can run both 2GB of DDR2 and 2GB of DDR3 memory at up to 667bps. S2C offers a large library Prototype Ready IP consisting of pre verified digital IP and of off-the-shelf daughter modules, including H.264, DDR2/3, PCIe, Gigabit Ethernet, SRAM, and DVI, to further accelerate user’s development of rapid FPGA prototypes.

Mon-Ren Chene, chairman and CTO of S2C, said: “Along with the V6 TAI logic module launching, our TAI Player Pro software version 3.3 has been upgraded to fully support the Virtex-6 FPGA, giving designers greater control over the prototype flow process, from multi-FPGA synthesis, partitioning and RTL-level probing to FPGA place-and-route. The latest software now supports incremental probing function utilizing FPGA editor technology, that dramatically saves FPGA re-compile time."

“Once designs are compiled, S2C’s TAI Player software allows users to rapidly download them to the FPGAs, generate programmable clocks, and self-test hardware straightforwardly via a USB2.0 connection. Our goal has always been to allow our customers to focus on designing and verifying their SoC chips rather
than on building or debugging FPGA prototypes.”

V6 TAI Logic Module is now shipping with either Virtex-6 XC6VLX760 or XC6VLX550T FPGAs. The V6 TAI Logic Module can mount either one or two FPGA devices per module. All V6 TAI logic modules adopt a similar form factor to all previous TAI Logic Module generations,, so existing customers can easily upgrade and re-use their current daughter cards or mother boards.