White Paper

WHITE PAPER A Generational Leap in Edge Computing with the Versal® ACAP mrcy.com 4 ACAP—POWERFUL, FLEXIBLE AND COMPACT It 's Not Just the Next Xilinx FPGA The Versal® AI Core ACAP, part of Xilinx's Versal portfolio, isn't just another FPGA or SoC. It's a true heterogeneous processor, fabricated with state-of-the-art 7nm technology and incorporating three different types of compute engines. Each ACAP device includes Scalar Engines, Programmable Logic, and Intelligent Engines , all connected by an extremely high- bandwidth network on chip (NoC). Multiple compute engine types are designed into the ACAP because no single style of processing is capable of optimally performing all the tasks involved in a sophisticated edge application. As an adaptive SoC, an ACAP can be given a new hardware configuration to adapt to application requirements—a unique differentiator from CPUs, GPUs, and ASSPs, which all have fixed hardware architectures. Scalar Engines, functioning like traditional CPUs, are ideal for complex decision making and control. In the Versal AI Core ACAP, there are four of these, two low-power Arm® Cortex®- R5F real time processors and two full power domain Cortex-A72 cores, supported by a system memory management unit. These processing engines are vital for managing and responding to human interfaces, controlling multi-mission system behavior, and countless other operations that involve choosing between multiple options. Programmable Logic, also referred to as Adaptable Engines, adds the flexibility to handle a diverse set of computationally demanding algorithms. Included are FPGA structures, with 1.5 times the LUTs of Xilinx's high-end Virtex® UltraScale+™ FPGA, as well as programmable I/O and a customizable memory hierarchy of block RAM and UltraRAM. Just like FPGAs, Adaptable Engines provide highly efficient signal processing for radar and EW applications. Intelligent Engines are optimized for advanced signal processing, such as linear algebra and matrix math, which are well suited for 5G wireless systems and AI inference. The ACAP contains two types: (1) DSP Engines, which function like traditional digital signal processors, and (2) AI Engines, similar to advanced GPUs, comprise vector processors for fixed and floating-point operations, and a scalar processor, as well as dedicated program and data memories. The DSP Engines are optimal for certain kinds of signal processing, such as routines that use context switching. The vector processors in the AI Engines deliver fast manipulation of image pixels, as well as high performance for machine learning (ML) and inference algorithms in AI-based applications. Versal® Adaptable Engines SCALAR ENGINES ADAPTABLE ENGINES INTELLIGENT ENGINES Dual-Core Arm ® Cortex ® -A72 Application Processor PCIe ® w/DMA & CCIX, CXL DDR4 HBM 100 G Multirate Ethernet Cores 600 G Cores Direct RF 32 Gb/s 58 Gb/s 112 Gb/s MIPI LVDS GPIO Dual-Core Arm Cortex-R5F Real-Time Processor AI Engine DSP Engine Platform Management Controller Programmable Network on Chip The Versal AI Core ACAP is a true heterogeneous processor

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