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Platforms





  • Any recent Xilinx platform can be used.
  • For full details of eligble hardware see the competition rules. The following XUP, Alveo and partner platforms are recommended.




XUP Platforms Platforms



Pynq-z2 tul



The PYNQ-Z2 from TUL is the recommended platform for getting started with PYNQ. The PYNQ-Z2 includes a Zynq Z7020, 512 MB DDR3 memory, 2x Pmods, Arduino, and Raspberry Pi headers. For more information, please see the TUL PYNQ-Z2 page.



The boolean board



  • A Xilinx Spartan 7 XC7S50 FPGA
  • A USB port for power & programming
  • An on-board Bluetooth Low Energy radio
  • A HDMI source port that can drive up to 1080p
  • An on-board analog-to-digital converter
  • A large QSPI ROM for storing FPGA configurations and user data
  • Four servo connectors (conventional or continuous rotation)
  • An 8-digit seven-segment display
  • Four Pmod®-compatible expansion connectors

For more information see the RealDigital page.



Pynq-zu



TUL PYNQ-ZU board, based on Xilinx Zynq UltraScale+ MPSoC, is designed for the Xilinx University Program to support the Xilinx PYNQ open source framework and embedded systems development. Features:

  • Quad core ARM Cortex-A53.
  • Dual R5 processors DDR4 memory controller with 8 DMA channels and   4 High Performance AXI3 Slave ports.
  • 1G Ethernet, 2x USB 3.0, DisplayPort.
  • HDMI 2.0 sink port (input), HDMI 2.0 source port (output), Mini Display Port.

For more information see the PYNQ-ZU page.






Compute acceleration platforms



Xilinx Alveo are PCIe boards intended for compute acceleration and the recommended platform for the Open Hardware "Compute Acceleration" category. Current boards include the Alveo U50/U200/U250/U280. Free remote access to Alveo hardware is available to academics through the XACC research program. For more information see the Xilinx Alveo webpage.



Xilinx Alveo U250



Xilinx® Alveo™ U250 Data Center accelerator cards are designed to meet the constantly changing needs of the modern Data Center, providing up to 90X higher performance than CPUs for key workloads. Features include:

  • Largest Alveo Xilinx UltraScale™ device (1.7M LUT, 12K DSPs, 57MB on-chip SRAM)
  • 64GB DRAM (4x 16GB DDR4)
  • 2x QSFP28 (100GbE)

For more information, see the Xilinx® Alveo™ U250 page.



Xilinx Alveo u50



The Xilinx® Alveo™ U50 Data Center accelerator cards provide optimized acceleration for workloads in financial computing, machine learning, computational storage, and data search and analytics. Built on Xilinx UltraScale+ architecture and packaged up in an efficient 75-watt, small form factor, the Xilinx® Alveo™ U50 features:

  • Half-height, Half-length PCIe form factor.
  • Faster application performance with 8GB HBM memory.
  • Low latency network capability through 100G networking (with support for 4x 10GbE, 4x 25GbE, or 1x 40GbE or 1x 100GbE).

For more information, see the Xilinx® Alveo™ U50 page.





Selection of partner boards



Red PiTaYa



The Red Pitaya is a credit card-sized, open-source test and measurement board that can be used to replace most measurement instruments used in electronics laboratories. The device, based on Linux, includes an FPGA, digital signal processing (DSP), dual core ARM Cortex processor, signal acquisition and generation circuitry, micro USB socket, microSD card slot, RJ45 socket for Ethernet connection, and USB socket – all powered from an external mains adaptor. Red Pitaya offers free loan boards for use in the Open Hardware design competition. For more information, please see the Red Pitaya page.



Avnet Ultra96



The Ultra96 from Avnet is a Zynq Ultrascale+ board supported by PYNQ. The board features

  • A Zynq UltraScale+ MPSoC ZU3EG
  • 2 GB DDR4 Memory
  • Wi-Fi / Bluetooth, Mini DisplayPort, USB 3.0.

For more information, please see the Avnet Ultra96 page.



Sundance VCS-1



The Sundance VCS-1 is a PC/104 Linux stack composed of the EMC2 , and FM191 expansion card. EMC2 is a PCIe/104 OneBank™ carrier for a Trenz compatible SoC Module. Sundance are also offering a Lynsyn kit giveaway. Lynsyn measures power for sections of code helping you make your design as power efficient as possible.

For more information, please see the Sundance VCS-1 page.



digilent



A range of XUP boards with academic discount are available from Digilent, including the Basys 3, Nexys 4 DDR, Zybo, and Zedboard. Register with Digilent to apply for academic pricing.

For more information, please see the Digilent page.