Micron Xccela Flash Adopted by Xilinx

Micron Technology, Inc. is working with Xilinx, Inc. to boost the boot and dynamic configuration performance of Xilinx’s Versal platform, an adaptive compute acceleration platform (ACAP).

ACAP, a new category of heterogeneous compute devices, will use Micron Xccela flash and other Micron memory solutions to reduce system start-up times and increase system responsiveness in automotive, industrial, networking and consumer applications that use AI.

“Xilinx’s choice to support Xccela flash in its Versal ACAP is a testament to the growing importance of bandwidth for memory and storage used in AI applications,” said Richard De Caro, director of NOR flash, Micron’s embedded business unit. “As autonomous driving vehicles incorporate higher levels of AI inference capabilities into advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS), Xccela flash enables Versal ACAP-based systems to power up and configure rapidly to meet ADAS application requirements.“

The rising complexity of AI and ML systems is driving an ever greater need to complement processing power with more memory and storage for faster data processing. Increased amounts of memory and storage help avoid performance and throughput bottlenecks while transforming vast amounts of data into insights. Applications such as autonomous driving that rely on multiple displays and sensors have an additional need for instant on and quick reset or reboot capability to ensure timely delivery of information for decision-making. By working together, the two companies aim to develop heterogeneous compute platforms with low latency that address the compute and data processing requirements of AI applications.

“Our Versal ACAP customers are developing compute-intensive, often safety-critical applications,” said Sumit Shah, senior director of FPGA, SoC and ACAP product marketing and management, Xilinx. “Micron embodies the excellence we seek in our partners. And with Micron’s innovative Octal SPI Xccela flash, developers can meet their near-instant-on requirements and take full advantage of Versal ACAP’s adaptable, dynamically configurable hardware for their next-gen platforms.“

Versal ACAP is built for AI inference in emerging applications of data centre, automotive, 5G infrastructure, aerospace, defense, and test and measurement. Using the Xccela bus interface, a JEDEC xSPI-compliant standard developed and promoted by the Xccela Consortium, Versal ACAP increases boot and configuration performance by 8 times, compared to prior-gen FPGA platforms using quad serial peripheral interface (SPI) NOR flash. Xccela flash delivers up to 400MB/s in double data rate mode while consuming 30% less effective energy per bit over traditional quad SPI NOR flash.

Xccela flash expands Micron’s 45nm NOR flash portfolio of solutions, which are manufactured at its wafer fabrication facility in Manassas, VA. This flash product family meets the Automotive Electronics Council qualification standard (AEC-Q100), supporting temperature ranges from -40°C to 125°C and densities from 256Mb to 2Gb. All densities and temperature ranges are available for ordering in volume quantities.

In addition to Xccela flash, Micron will provide support for Versal ACAPs through other portfolio solutions, including its DDR4, LPDDR4X, e.MMC 5.1 and serial NOR products.