FPGA-based system-on-modules target key vertical industry sectors

EnSilica has appointed Anglia Components as its business development partner in the UK and Ireland for its eSi-Modules family of FPGA-based system-on-modules. Anglia will target the eSi-Modules at key vertical industry sectors including utilities, smart cities, oil and gas, access control, medical devices, IoT, industrial internet and telematics. "We have been seeking to appoint a business development partner for some time to extend the market penetration of our eSi-Modules family," said Ian Lankshear, CEO, EnSilica. "With its strong application knowledge, extensive team of field application engineers, good outreach into key vertical markets, excellent geographical coverage and complementary product lines, Anglia is the perfect choice." John Bowman, marketing director, Anglia, added: "EnSilica helps us to offer a solution for both existing FPGA users and for customers who have a design which requires a FPGA but perhaps don't have the budget or design resource to develop their own solution. Anglia already has a very strong range of advanced companion ICs for FPGA-based designs from Analog Devices, Intersil, Avago and Murata Power Solutions." EnSilica's eSi-Modules family currently comprises the eSi-ZM1 small form factor system-on-module built around the Xilinx Zynq extensible programming platform with Xilinx Series-7 FPGA fabric and powered by an ARM dual-core Cortex A9 processor running embedded Linux. This is supported by the eSi-ZB1-DK full development kit comprising carrier board, ZM1 module and a power supply, and eSi-ZB1-BB carrier board without the ZM1 module. Commenting, David Pearson, Anglia's technical director, said: "By encompassing the challenging part of an embedded system into a small module, EnSilica's eSi-ZM1 dramatically simplifies baseboard development both in terms of the number of layers and layout complexity. Combining a powerful dual-core ARM A9 subsystem running embedded Linux together with the Xilinx Series-7 FPGA fabric enables the design of smarter systems that demand real-time hardware performance." The eSi-ZM1 facilitates low risk and fast-time-to-market development with minimal integration effort across a range of applications and hardware designs without sacrificing differentiation or flexibility. It is unique in providing an exceptionally high I/O count, delivering the full capability of the FPGA fabric without sacrificing signal integrity. It provides a broad range of advanced I/O including gigabit Ethernet, USB, I2C and SD card. Ready to use out-of-the-box, all standalone module sales will be handled by Anglia with EnSilica supporting its direct OEM accounts and Anglia's customers who require FPGA implementation, software development and verification engineering support on a case-by-case basis, says the company.