Module and dev kit run Linux on Arria 10 FPGA SoC
Sep 29, 2020 — by Eric Brown 653 viewsIWave’s “Arria 10 SoC SOM” and “Arria 10 SoC FPGA” dev kit run Linux 4.9.78 on Intel’s hybrid Arm/FPGA Arria 10 GX and SX SoCs along with PCIe, GbE, 10GbE SFP+, FMC, and PMOD.
Back in 2016, IWave launched an Arria 10 SoC Module featuring Intel/Altera’s Arria 10 SX SoC. Now, the company has launched a similarly 95 x 75mm Arria 10 SoC SOM, which is also referred to as the iW-RainboW-G24M. Designed for test and measurement, control and intelligence, diagnostic medical imaging, wireless infrastructure, radar, and automation applications, the module supports Linux 4.9.78 and is available with an Arria 10 SoC FPGA Development Kit (see farther below).


Arria 10 SoC SOM, front and back
(click images to enlarge)
The Arria 10 falls between the low-end Cyclone V and the Arria Stratix 10 in Intel’s FPGA lineup. Whereas IWave promoted the earlier module for pairing with the lower-end Arria 10 SX models, the announcement for the new Arria 10 SoC SOM mentions only the higher-end GX. Nevertheless, both modules support the same GX and SX options and the three SKUs listed for the Arria 10 SoC SOM use SX chips. The GX models offer logic elements (LEs) ranging from 270K to 1150K while the listed SX models range from 270K to 660K LEs.
The Arria 10 SoC SOM supports for more RAM than the original: up to 2GB of 32-bit DDR4 with ECC for the dual-core, 1.5GHz Cortex-A9 “HPS” block and 4GB 64-bit DDR4 for the FPGA. (The low-end SX270 SKU is limited to 1GB HPS RAM.) Flash memory has advanced from up to 2GB NAND to 8GB eMMC, and there is optional config flash for the FPGA. IWave has also added a microSD slot.
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The Arm/HPS and FPGA blocks extend their I/Os via dual, 240-pin B2B connectors. As before, HPS related I/Os include GbE and USB 2.0 OTG, both with PHY, as well as SPI, I2C, UART, debug UART, and up to 14x GPIOs. The 5V module supports the interfaces with variable voltage.


Arria 10 SoC SOM (left) and Arria 10 SoC FPGA Development Kit block diagrams
(click images to enlarge)
The module provides 24 high-speed FPGA transceivers @ 17.4Gbps and offers up to 189 user I/Os. There are two banks of 24x LVDS, among other interfaces including PCIe Gen3 x8, SATA, GbE, USB 3.0, and JTAG.
Arria 10 SoC FPGA Development Kit
The 12V, 140 x 130mm development kit for the Arria 10 SoC SOM is equipped with a GbE port with a magjack connector linked to the Arm-based HPS and a 10GbE SFP+ cage linked to the FPGA. Other HPS linked features include a micro-USB 2.0 OTG port, a micro-USB debug port, a JTAG connector, and an HPS I/O header.


Arria 10 SoC FPGA Development Kit, front and back
(click images to enlarge)
The Arria 10 SoC FPGA Development Kit supplies FPGA connected expansion interfaces including PCIe x4, dual 12-pin PMOD connectors, and dual high-speed FMC connectors for add-on cards including ADCs, DACs, RF links, and motor control. The FPGA is also linked to an M.2 slot with SATA, a USB 3.0 Type-C port, a DisplayPort, and “3G/12G” SDI video in and out jacks.
Further information
No pricing or availability information was provided for the Arria 10 SoC SOM (iW-RainboW-G24M) or Arria 10 SoC/FPGA Development Kit. More information may be found in IWave’s announcement and Arria 10 SoC SOM and the Arria 10 SoC/FPGA Development Kit product pages.
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