Introduction to Versal Adaptive SoCs

Versal Adaptive SoC AI Engine Architecture Manual (AM009)

Document ID
AM009
Release Date
2023-08-18
Revision
1.3 English

AMD Versal™ adaptive SoCs combine Scalar Engines, Adaptable Engines, and Intelligent Engines with leading-edge memory and interfacing technologies to deliver powerful heterogeneous acceleration for any application. The hardware and software are targeted for programming and optimization by data scientists and software and hardware developers. Devices 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 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 programmable 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 use Arm® Cortex®-A72 and Cortex-R5F processors and allow for intensive compute tasks.

The Versal AI Edge series focuses on AI performance per watt for real-time systems in automated drive, predictive factory and healthcare systems, multi-mission payloads in aerospace & defense, and a breadth of other applications. More than just AI, the Versal AI Edge series accelerates the whole application from sensor to AI to real-time control, all with the highest levels of safety and security to meet critical standards such as ISO26262 and IEC 61508.

The Versal AI Core series delivers breakthrough AI inference acceleration with AI Engines and 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 mid-range of the Versal portfolio, 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. The Versal Premium series include 112G PAM4 transceivers and integrated blocks for 600G Ethernet, 600G Interlaken, PCI Express® Gen5, and high-speed cryptography.

The Versal HBM series enables the convergence of fast memory, adaptable compute, and secure connectivity. The series is architected to keep up with the higher memory needs of the most compute intensive, memory bound applications, providing adaptable acceleration for data center, wired networking, test & measurement, and aerospace & defense applications. The Versal HBM series integrates the most advanced HBM2e DRAM, providing high memory bandwidth and capacity within a single device.

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