The new kits comprehensive set of memories, user interfaces and the external connections, additionally to standard AT91CAP9 device for fixed microcontroller architecture and the field-programmable gate array (FPGA) for custom logic, allows the kit to be rapidly configured to emulate application under development, saving time, decreasing cost and allowing the design to be fully debugged before committing it to the metal programmed silicon. A lower-cost alternative is available with FPGA capacity of 1.5 million gates.
The new AT91CAP9HA-DK allows customers to begin developing designs now, in expectation of the availability of AT91CAP9H.
The Motherboard hosts power supplies, EEPROM program memory, keypad, VGA screen with the touch sensing, debug interface and external connections for USB, Ethernet, CAN, SD/MMC cards, image sensor, analog inputs, I2S and AC97 audio codecs, and also PIO expansion and the FPGA I/O connectors for interfacing to the application-specific boards. The Mezzanine Board hosts the new AT91CAP9 processor that offers the fixed portion of the CAP architecture. Its external bus interface (EBI) is carried to external connector. The Mezzanine Board provides two FPGA options: an Altera Stratix III EP3SL200 that offers 198900 4-input lookup tables, the equivalent of 1.5 million gates in CAP Metal Programmable Block, or an EP3SL340 with 338000 LUTs, equivalent to 2 million gates. The Memory Extension Board is available in 1.8V and 3.3V variants. The 1.8V option hosts burst Cellular RAM, NAND Flash, Mobile DDR SDRAM and a service TWI EEPROM; the 3.3V option hosts SDRAM, NAND Flash, NOR Flash and a service TWI EEPROM.
Michel Le Lan, Atmel’s marketing director for ASICs, said, The AT91CAP9HA Development Kit responds to the need expressed by numerous clients for more customizable logic in the CAP architecture. In particular, the 2 million gates in the CAP9H will be more than adequate for advanced video compression capabilities in addition to the customers’ application-specific logic. We are making the development kit available now, in advance of the release of the CAP9H device, so that customers can start developing their applications on an FPGA, to be ready for the availability of the metal-programmable device.
