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Strategies_for_RFSoC

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WHITE PAPER Strategies for Deploying Xilinx's Zynq UltraScale+ RFSoC mrcy.com 2 On February 21st, 2017, Xilinx® announced the introduction of a new technology called RFSoC with the rather dramatic headline " Xilinx Unveils Disruptive Integration and Architectural Breakthrough for 5G Wireless with RF-Class Analog Technology." The proposition was simple; add RF- class analog to digital and digital to analog data converters to Xilinx 's already powerful MPSoC, ARM processor enhanced family of high performance FPGAs. And while the concept was simple, the implications were profound, changing the way engineers could design and package small, high channel count systems. And this technology not only offers new possibilities for 5G applications, but has significant impact in military and scientific systems, justifying the claim in Xilinx 's announcement. To get better appreciation of the capabilities of RFSoC and understand how to best use the advantages of this technology, it 's worth taking a quick look at current trends in data converters and signal processing. WHAT IS RFSOC? RFSoC or more properly, Zynq® UltraScale+™ RFSoC is based on Xilinx 's prior family, the Zynq UltraScale+ MPSoC. The MPSoC is a system on chip architecture that includes up to four ARM Cortex-A53 application processors and two ARM Cortex-R5 real-time processors integrated into the UltraScale+ programmable logic. This solution Xilinx's new RFSoC brings a powerful and unique solution for addressing some of the most demanding requirements of high bandwidth and high channel count systems. This paper provides a look at how RFSoC compares to the current trends in A/D and D/A converters and the strategies for getting the most performance out of this new family of FPGAs. offers the software programmability and flexibility of a processor with the hardware programmability and performance of an FPGA in a single IC. RFSoC builds on the MPSoC foundation and adds eight 5 GSPS 14-bit A/Ds each equipped with programmable Digital Downconverts (DDC) and eight 10 GSPS 14-bit D/As each equipped with Digital Upconverters (DUC). While other A/D and D/A configurations are available, we'll consider the eight A/D and eight D/A configuration for the rest of this paper. Below is an image that shows the similarity between the MPSoC and RFSoC. IMPROVEMENTS IN SWAP AND COST A common term in military applications is SWaP, which stands for Size, Weight and Power and refers to the ongoing requirement to reduce these attributes for communications, reconnaissance, radar and various types of signal acquisition and processing systems. The need for smaller, lighter and less power becomes obvious when you think about where these systems are often deployed. Unmanned vehicles like unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) and unmanned underwater vehicles (UUV) frequently require stealth to achieve their mission. Smaller, lighter and less power usually equates to stealthier, enabling these systems to be more effective. MPSoC RFSoC Figure 1 Xilinx 's Zynq UltraScale MPSoC vs RFSoC.

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