Introduction to Versal ACAP - 2020.2 English

Versal ACAP System Software Developers Guide (UG1304)

Document ID
UG1304
Release Date
2020-11-24
Version
2020.2 English

Versal™ adaptive compute acceleration platforms (ACAPs) combine Scalar Engines, Adaptable Engines, and Intelligent Engines with leading-edge memory and interfacing technologies to deliver powerful heterogeneous acceleration for any application. Most importantly, Versal ACAP hardware and software are targeted for programming and optimization by data scientists and software and hardware developers. Versal ACAPs are enabled by a host of tools, software, libraries, IP, middleware, and frameworks to enable all industry-standard design flows.

Built on the TSMC 7 nm FinFET process technology, the Versal portfolio is the first platform to combine software programmability and domain-specific hardware acceleration with the adaptability necessary to meet today's rapid pace of innovation. The portfolio includes six series of devices uniquely architected to deliver scalability and AI inference capabilities for a host of applications across different markets—from cloud—to networking—to wireless communications—to edge computing and endpoints.

The Versal architecture combines different engine types with a wealth of connectivity and communication capability and a network on chip (NoC) to enable seamless memory-mapped access to the full height and width of the device. Intelligent Engines are SIMD VLIW AI Engines for adaptive inference and advanced signal processing compute, and DSP Engines for fixed point, floating point, and complex MAC operations. Adaptable Engines are a combination of programmable logic blocks and memory, architected for high-compute density. Scalar Engines, including Arm® Cortex™-A72 and Cortex-R5F processors, allow for intensive compute tasks.

The Versal AI Core series delivers breakthrough AI inference acceleration with AI Engines that deliver over 100x greater compute performance than current server-class of CPUs. This series is designed for a breadth of applications, including cloud for dynamic workloads and network for massive bandwidth, all while delivering advanced safety and security features. AI and data scientists, as well as software and hardware developers, can all take advantage of the high-compute density to accelerate the performance of any application.

The Versal Prime series is the foundation and the mid-range of the Versal platform, serving the broadest range of uses across multiple markets. These applications include 100G to 200G networking equipment, network and storage acceleration in the Data Center, communications test equipment, broadcast, and aerospace & defense. The series integrates mainstream 58G transceivers and optimized I/O and DDR connectivity, achieving low-latency acceleration and performance across diverse workloads.

The Versal Premium series provides breakthrough heterogeneous integration, very high-performance compute, connectivity, and security in an adaptable platform with a minimized power and area footprint. The series is designed to exceed the demands of high-bandwidth, compute-intensive applications in wired communications, data center, test & measurement, and other applications. Versal Premium series ACAPs include 112G PAM4 transceivers and integrated blocks for 600G Ethernet, 600G Interlaken, PCI Express® Gen5, and high-speed cryptography.

The Versal architecture documentation suite is available at: https://www.xilinx.com/versal.