Introduction to AMD’s Next Milestone
This morning, AMD steps into a new territory with its Versal Premium VP1902 adaptive SoC (System On Chip) products. In the world of semiconductor chip design, where challenges abound and expenses skyrocket, this new product serves to alleviate some of the hardships. It is expected to revolutionize the emulation, prototyping, and verification phases of designing processors, accelerators, or platform products.
Implementing FPGA Technology
Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) are vital components of this design process. FPGAs can emulate entire chip designs and can be reset for optimization, the addition of new features, or the rectification of chip errata. However, the key challenge lies in the full utilization of programmable logic gates on board. This is crucial for enabling the design and emulation of increasingly complex chips for use in AI and other applications that demand high levels of computing power.
AMD Shines in FPGA Technology
The new Versal Premium VP1902 adaptive SoC, built on TSCM’s 7nm process, is presented by AMD as the world’s largest. It boasts 18.5 million logic cells, providing twice the programmable logic density and IO bandwidth of previous generations. The innovative quadrant-based architecture behind this product allows it to surpass its closest contender, Intel’s Stratix, by a significant margin.
Unrivalled Debug Capabilities
Apart from density and throughput, AMD also wishes to underline the ‘unmatched’ debug capabilities of the Versal VP1902. It’s touted to facilitate up to 8 times quicker debugging speeds, with the high speed NoC (Network on Chip) playing a crucial role. Furthermore, AMD backs this product with its bolstered Vivado ML design suite equipped with features for design tuning, debugging, compilation, and other areas.
Beneficial Acquisition and Future Prospects
The amalgamation of AMD and Xilinx continues to bear fruit, with Xilinx’s versatility impacting a broad span of the joint product portfolio. However, AMD’s Versal remains to be a quintessential Xilinx technology and is a vital resource to tackle large-scale design challenges. The Versal Premium VP 1902 FPGAs are set to be distributed for sampling in the third quarter of 2023. Full-scale production will commence in the first half of 2024, and relevant design tools will be available from the second half of 2023.
