Lattice CrossLink-NX FPGA: Helping developers meet demand for embedded and smart vision applications
Lattice Semiconductor Corporation announced the CrossLink-NX-17 FPGA is now available. CrossLink-NX FPGAs deliver the best-in-class low power consumption, small form factor, reliability, and performance that developers need to create innovative embedded vision and AI solutions for compute, industrial, automotive, and consumer markets.
The CrossLink-NX-17, with 17K logic cells, is the second device in the CrossLink-NX family. The CrossLink-NX-40, with 39K logic cells, has been shipping in production quantities since 2019.
According to a report by BCC Research, “Computer Vision and Machine Vision in Everyday Life,” the global market for computer and machine vision was worth $14.9 billion in 2019 and is set to grow to $26 billion by 2024.
Lattice helps developers meet this growing demand for embedded and smart vision applications by offering a variety of low-power FPGAs and comprehensive solutions stacks designed to enable the quick and easy implementation of applications like video signal bridging, aggregation and splitting, image processing, and the AI/ML inferencing used to train smart vision models.
Peiju Chiang, Product Marketing Manager at Lattice, said, “Lattice is a leading provider of innovative, low power solutions for smart and embedded vision applications. With the CrossLink-NX-17, Lattice gives developers one more hardware power and performance option to choose from as they design their vision systems.
“Our award-winning mVision solutions stack can further accelerate and simplify vision system development by providing modular hardware development boards, featuring Lattice FPGAs like the CrossLink-NX, our Radiant 2.1 design software, embedded vision IP, and reference designs needed to implement popular embedded vision applications.”
The CrossLink-NX family was designed using the Lattice Nexus™ platform, the industry’s only low power FPGA platform using a 28 nm FD-SOI manufacturing process. The Nexus platform features a Lattice-designed FPGA fabric architecture optimized for low power operation in a small form factor.
Key features
Low power – built on the Lattice Nexus FPGA platform, CrossLink-NX provides up to a 75 percent reduction in power consumption compared to competing FPGAs of a similar class.
High reliability – CrossLink-NX has a Soft Error Rate (SER) up to 100 times lower than similar FPGAs in its class, making it a compelling solution for mission-critical applications that must operate safely and reliably. The initial CrossLink-NX device is designed to support ruggedized environments found in outdoor, industrial, and automotive applications.
Performance – CrossLink-NX-17 delivers enhanced performance enabled by three key elements:
- Fast I/O support – CrossLink-NX-17 FPGAs are well suited for embedded vision applications thanks to support for multiple fast I/Os, including MIPI.
- Instant-on performance – to better support applications where a long system boot time is unacceptable, such as industrial motor control, CrossLink-NX-17 enables ultra-fast I/O configuration in 3 ms and total device configuration in less than 10 ms.
- High memory-to-logic ratio – to efficiently power AI inferencing in Edge devices, CrossLink-NX-17 features 170 bits of memory for every logic cell, the highest memory-to-logic ratio in its class, providing 2x the performance compared to prior generations.
Small form factor – to support customer system miniaturization, the first CrossLink-NX-17 device is available in a 3.7 x 4.1 mm form factor which is up to four times smaller than similar competing FPGAs in its class.
Software tools and IP – in addition to its new Lattice Radiant® 2.1 design software, Lattice offers a robust library of popular IP cores including interfaces like MIPI D-PHY, PCIe, SGMII and OpenLDI, and demos for common embedded vision applications such as 4:1 image sensor aggregation.