SoC FPGAs

Overview

Microsemi System on Chip (SoC) FPGAs

Microsemi currently offers two SoC FPGA families, both of which include ARM Cortex-M3 processors and microcontroller subsystems.

SmartFusion2 SoC FPGA

Highest reliability, most secure, lowest power FPGA
Up to 150K LEs with 5Mbit SRAM and 4.5Mbit NVM
166 MHz ARM Cortex-M3 microprocessor with Instruction Cache
5Gbps SERDES, PCIe, XAUI / XGXS+ Native SERDES
Hard 667 mbps DDR2/3 controllers with SECDED

SmartFusion2 SoC FPGA

SmartFusion SoC FPGA

Industry's only FPGAs with hard 32-bit ARM Cortex-M3 microcontroller core
Programmable analog with analog-to-digital converter (ADC), voltage/current/temperature monitors, digital-to-analog converter (DAC), comparators, and analog compute engine (ACE)
Proven ProASIC3 FPGA fabric with up to 500K gates and 204 analog and digital I/Os

» SmartFusion SoC FPGA

For a complete list of available flash-based products and package offerings, read the FPGA and SoC Product Catalog

ARM Processors

ARM Processors for Microsemi SoC FPGAs

Microsemi's ARM^® Cortex™-M3 processor is included as a hard resource in Microsemi's SmartFusion2 and SmartFusion SoC FPGA families. The ARM Cortex-M3 32-bit processor has been specifically developed to provide a high-performance, low-cost platform for a broad range of applications, including microcontrollers, automotive body systems, industrial control systems and wireless networking.

The SmartFusion2 implementation adds the Embedded Trace Macrocell (ETM) support and an 8KB Instruction Cache and operates at 166MHz, compared to 100 MHz in the SmartFusion devices.

In addition to SmartDesign and SoftConsole from Microsemi and RealView ® tools from ARM, third-party vendors offer a vast range of supporting tools in the well-established ARM ecosystem, from compilers and debuggers to real-time operating system (RTOS) solutions.

ARM Developer Resources are provided for Cortex-M3

For device information and documentation, visit the SmartFusion2 and SmartFusion pages.

SmartFusion2 SoC FPGAs and SmartFusion SoC FPGAs families feature microcontroller subsystem (MSS) that has embedded ARM Cortex-M3 processor.

The ARM Cortex-M3 processor is the industry-leading 32-bit processor for highly deterministic real-time applications, specifically developed for high-performance low-cost platforms. The processor is highly configurable enabling a wide range of implementations.

The ARM Cortex-M3 processor incorporates:

A 32-bit processor core with low gate count and low latency interrupt processing
RISC processor, 3-stage pipeline Harvard architecture, pipeline core incorporating branch speculation, single cycle multiplication, and hardware division, giving a Dhrystone benchmark of 1.25 DMIPS/MHz
A nested vectored interrupt controller (NVIC) closely integrated with the processor core to achieve low latency interrupt processing
MPU is included
Cortex-M3 processor is configured for SmartFusion2 MSS uses only little endian
Auxiliary Control Register is included
Multiple high-performance bus interfaces
A debug solution with the optional ability to do the following:
- Implement breakpoints and code patches
- Implement watchpoints, tracing, and system profiling
- Support printf() style debugging
- Bridge to a trace port analyzer

Manufacturers of the Cortex-M3 processor integrated circuits are permitted some latitude in configuring a particular implementation of the Cortex-M3 processor delivered by ARM. Following are the implementation specifics in the SmartFusion2 device:

Memory protection unit (MPU): This helps in creating protected and non-protected regions of memories.
Flash patch break point (FPB)
Data watchpoint and trace (DWT) unit
Instrumental trace macrocell (ITM)
Embedded trace macrocell (ETM) – Implemented in SmartFusion2 Only
Power-mode saving:
- HCLK is gated off when in SLEEPING or SLEEPDEEP mode
- SLEEPING and SLEEPDEEP signals are available at the FPGA fabric interface
- Sleep mode extension handshake signals are available at the FPGA fabric interface
Not all registers in the register bank are reset
Endianness: Little endian only
Auxiliary Control Register

The following configurations and optional features are not used in SmartFusion2 device:

Wake-up Interrupt controller (WIC) is not included.
Nested Vectored Interrupt Controller (NVIC): SmartFusion2 MSS is set to have 83 interrupts (including non-mask able interrupt).
Interrupt priority levels: 16 priority levels (4 MSB bits in BASEPRI register) are implemented so BASEPRI register [7-4] are used for the priority setting and [3-0] are read as zeros.

SoC FPGAs Compared

The table below shows a comparison of the features of the SmartFusion and SmartFusion2 SoC FPGAs

Feature	SmartFusion	SmartFusion2
FPGA Fabric
Logic Elements	700 - 6K	5K - 150K, 4 input LUTs with DFF
Total RAM	36 - 108 Kbits	191 - 4488 Kbits
4608 bit RAM Blocks	8 - 24	-
1K bit Micro RAMs	-	11 - 240
18K bit Large RAMs	-	10 - 236
18x18 Multiply Accumulate Blocks	-	11 - 240
Microcontroller Subsystem (MSS)
Cortex-M3 processor with MPU	100 MHz	166 MHz
Embedded Trace Macrocell	-	Yes
8KB SEU Tolerant Instruction Cache	-	Yes
Flash (eNVM)	512 Kbytes	512 Kbytes
SRAM (eSRAM)	64 Kbytes	-
SECDED eSRAM	-	80 Kbytes
Fabric Interface Controllers	1	2
APB Fabric Interface Controller	-	1
Ethernet MAC	10/100	10/100/1000
SEU Tolerant Ethernet Buffers	-	Yes
HS USB OTG	-	1
SEU Tolerant USB Buffers	-	Yes
CAN 2.0A and B	-	1
SEU Tolerant CAN Buffers	-	Yes
I2C	2	2
SPI	2	2
SEU Tolerant SPI Buffers	-	Yes
16550 UART	2	-
Multi-Mode UART	-	2
SEU Tolerant MMUART Buffers	-	2
32-Bit Timer	2	2
Async Memory Controller	Yes	Yes
SDRAM Controller	-	Yes
LPDDR SECDED Controller	-	Yes
DDR2 SECDED Controller	-	Yes
DDR3 SECDED Controller	-	Yes
PDMA	Yes	Yes
High Performance DMA	-	Yes
PLL's	2	8
Main Oscillator (32 KHz to 20 MHz)	1	1
RTC Crystal Oscillator	Yes	Yes
Main Crystal Oscillator	Yes	Yes
RC Oscillator 1	100 MHz	50 MHz
RC Oscillator 2	-	1 MHz
High Speed Serial Interfaces
SERDES 5 Gbps Lanes	-	16
PCIe Gen 2 5 Gbps Endpoints	-	4
User I/O
Maximum	204	574
Programmable Analog
ADCs(8-/10-/12-bit SAR)	3	-
DACs (8-/16-/24-bit sigma-delta)	3	-
Signal Conditioning Blocks (SCBs)	5	-
Comparators*	10	-
Current Monitors*	5	-
Temperature Monitors*	5	-
Bipolar High Voltage Monitors*	10	-

Additional Soft IP

In addition to the on-chip AHB bus and communications infrastructure supporting the Cortex-M3, Microsemi offers a broad portfolio of IP cores for use in the FPGA fabric to implement custom design solutions. A wide range of IP cores are available FREE in the Libero SoC and SmartDesign IP design tool.

To see a complete list of IP cores available in Libero, visit the IP Cores web page.

Ecosystem

Microsemi and partners provide a complete ARM Cortex-M3 ecosystem for the SmartFusion2 and SmartFusion SoC FPGAs

Microsemi Design Software

Libero SoC Design Suite - Microsemi's comprehensive, easy to use FPGA design suite
SoftConsole IDE - Microsemi's free software development environment that enables the rapid production of C and C++ executables and includes GNU ARM Eclipse Plug-in, GCC compiler, and GDB debugger
Firmware Catalog includes all of the available drivers and is installed with Libero or available standalone

Design Hardware

SmartFusion2 SoC FPGA family kits

SmartFusion2 Advanced Development Kit
SmartFusion2 Security Evaluation Kit
SmartFusion2 Starter Kit
Creative Development Board by Future Electronics
Arrow SF2+ Development Kit

SmartFusion SoC FPGA family kits

FlashPro Programmer - supports device in system programming and hardware and firmware debugging

Compile and Debug

Software IDE	SoftConsole	Keil MDK	IAR Embedded Workbench

Free Versions Available	Free with Libero SoC	32 K Code Limited	32 K Code Limited
Available from Vendor	N/A	Full Version	Full Version
Compiler	GNU GCC	RealView C/C++	IAR ARM Compiler
Debugger	GDB Debug	uVision Debugger	C-SPY Debugger
Instruction Set Simulator	No	uVision Simulator	Yes
Debug Hardware	FlashPro4	ULINK2 or ULINK-ME	J-LINK or J-LINK Lite
Trace Capability	No	ULINKpro	JTAGjet-Trace

SoftConsole IDE - Microsemi free software development environment that enables the rapid production of C and C++ executables

Download SoftConsole installation for Windows or Linux

IAR Embedded Workbench is an integrated development environment for building and debugging embedded ARM applications using assembler, C and C++. It includes a project manager, editor, build and debugger tools with support for RTOS-aware debugging on hardware or in a simulator.

Keil MDK comes in four editions: MDK-LITE, MDK-Essential, MDK-Plus and MDK-Professional. All four editions feature µVision®, the ARM Compiler, MicroLib, and RTX, but the MDK-LITE edition is limited to 32K so that small applications are more affordable.

Operating Systems / RTOS

FreeRTOS™ is a portable, open source, royalty free, mini real-time kernel (a free-to-download and free-to-deploy RTOS that can be used in commercial applications without any requirement to expose your proprietary source code). FreeRTOS is scalable and designed specifically for small embedded systems. This FreeRTOS version ported by Microsemi is 6.0.1. For more information, visit the FreeRTOS website: www.freertos.org

EmCraft Systems provides porting of the open-source U-boot firmware and uClinux™ kernel to SmartFusion, a Linux®-based cross-development framework, and other complementary components. Combined with the release of its A2F-Linux Evaluation Kit, this provides a low-cost platform for evaluation and development of Linux (uClinux) on the Cortex-M3 CPU core of the Microsemi SmartFusion devices.

Keil offers the RTX Real-Time Kernel as a royalty-free, deterministic RTOS designed for ARM and Cortex-M devices. It allows you to create programs that simultaneously perform multiple functions and helps to create applications which are better structured and more easily maintained.

The RTX Real-Time Kernel is included for free with MDK-ARM. Download the Evaluation version of Keil MDK-ARM
RTX for Cortex-M processors now has a BSD license and ports for Keil, IAR and GCC can be found at http://www.keil.com/microsemi

Micrium, Inc. supports SmartFusion with the company's flagship µC/OS family recognized for a variety of features and benefits, including unparalleled reliability, performance, dependability, impeccable source code and vast documentation. Micrium supports the following products for SmartFusion devices and continues to work with Microsemi on additional projects.

µC/OS-III™, Micrium's newest RTOS, is designed to save time on your next embedded project and puts greater control of the software in your hands.

RoweBots Research Inc provides an ultra tiny Linux-compatible RTOS called Unison for SmartFusion. Unison consists of a set of modular software components, which, like Linux, are either free or commercially licensed. Unison offers POSIX® and Linux compatibility with hard real-time performance, complete I/O modules and an easily understood environment for device driver programming. Seamless integration with FPGA and analog features are fast and easy.

RoweBots Unison 4 DS-based products include a free Unison V4 Linux and POSIX-compatible kernel with serial I/O, file system, six demonstration programs, upgraded documentation and source code for Unison V4, and free (for non-commercial use) Unison V4 TCP/IP server. Commercial license upgrade is available for Unison V4 TCP/IP server with three demonstration programs, DHCP client and source code. >> Download Unison V4
RoweBots Unison5 DS-based products include commercial Unison V5 Linux- and POSIX-compatible kernel with serial I/O, file system, extensive feature set, full documentation, source code and more than 20 demonstration programs, Unison V5 TCP/IPv4 with extended feature set, sockets interface, multiple network interfaces, PPP support, DHCP client, documentation, source code and six demonstration programs, and multiple other features.

Middleware

Microsemi has ported both uIP and IwIP for Ethernet support as well as including TFTP file service.

The Keil/ARM Real-Time Library (RL-ARM)* in addition to RTX source includes:

RL-TCPnet (TCP/IP) - The Keil RL-TCPnet library, supporting full TCP/IP and UDP protocols, is a full networking suite specifically written for small ARM and Cortex-M processor-based microcontrollers. TCPnet is now ported to and supports SmartFusion Cortex-M3. It is highly optimized, has a small code footprint, and gives excellent performance, providing a wide range of application level protocols and examples such as FTP, SNMP, SOAP and AJAX. An HTTP server example of TCPnet working in a SmartFusion design is available.
Flash File System (RL-Flash) allows your embedded applications to create, save, read, and modify files in standard storage devices such as ROM, RAM, or Flash ROM, using a standard serial peripheral interface (SPI). Many ARM-based microcontrollers have a practical requirement for a standard file system. With RL-FlashFS you can implement new features in embedded applications such as data logging, storing program state during standby modes, or storing firmware upgrades.
* The CAN and USB functions within RL-ARM are not supported for SmartFusion.

Micrium in addition to their µC/OS-III® offers the following support for SmartFusion:

µC/TCP-IP™ is a compact, reliable and high-performance stack built from the ground up by Micrium and has the quality, scalability and reliability that translates into a rapid configuration of network options, remarkable ease-of-use and rapid time-to-market.
µC/Probe™ is one of the most useful tools in embedded systems design and puts you in the driver's seat, allowing you to take charge of virtually any variable, memory location, and I/O port in your embedded product, while your system is running.