2019 Technology of the Year Award
Technology of the Year winner Xilinx Versal ACAP was architected and developed with a recognition that the evolution of semiconductor process technology is no longer sufficient to achieve substantial gains in faster performance and lower power consumption on its own. The Versal ACAP has two key differentiators. From the hardware perspective, Versal ACAP has a plethora of silicon infrastructure which is hardened and yet still programmable, enabling lower power while maintaining flexibility. This includes a programmable Network-On-Chip, memory controllers, PCIe and CCIX controllers and a multi-rate ethernet controller. From a software perspective, ACAP has been designed to be fully software programmable without needing to know RTL (register-transfer level). The ACAP tools and software stack are designed such that different types of developers can use the tools and languages that they are familiar with, from VHDL to TensorFlow, and achieve a working design collaboratively or independently. Versal ACAP is designed for target applications like wireless communications and AI inference. The combination of SDR and AI technology is particularly intriguing.
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