Xilinx Virtex-II Platform FPGAs and Broadcom’s MIPS-based processors enable rapid development of gigabit Internet protocol products.

A new minimal HyperTransport™ (HT-Lite) reference design for Xilinx Virtex™-II Platform FPGAs enables rapid development of designs using Broadcom™ MIPS™-based processors. The Virtex-II FPGA leverages Xilinx flexible SelectIO™-Ultra technology and Broadcom’s minimal HyperTransport IP to create a bridge between processors and ASSPs.

This reference design underscores the companies’ commitment to a technology relationship aimed at providing interoperable interfaces for use in communications, networking, and consumer applications. The HT-Lite reference design is one of several efforts resulting from Broadcom’s membership in the Xilinx Reference Design Alliance Program.

“Collaboration between companies like Broadcom and Xilinx – both Hyper-Transport Technology Consortium mem-bers – ensures that the HyperTransport technology will continue to satisfy the ever-increasing need for bandwidth,” said Gabriel Sartori, president of the consortium. “The reference design demonstrates how HyperTransport technology enables next-generation networks by providing a universal connection that reduces the number of buses within a system, provides a high-performance link for embedded applications, and enables highly scalable multi-processing systems.”

“By combining the highly flexible Xilinx Virtex-II FPGA solution with our MIPS-based processors, OEMs can easily add additional features with minimal impact to their design schedules,” said Krishna Anne, strategic marketing manager of Broadcom’s Broadband Processor Business Unit.

The HT-Lite reference design is used as a slave interface to end an HT chain supporting an 8-bit link width at a design speed of 400 MHz DDR (800 Mbps per I/O). The HT-Lite core uses fewer than 1,900 slices in a Virtex-II FPGA.

The HT-Lite reference design is available now free of charge. Documentation and instructions for downloading the reference design can be found at www.xilinx.com/xapp/xapp639.pdf. Customers in need of a full-featured HyperTransport solution can use the full HT core, also available now at www.xilinx.com/ipcenter/.

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