TE0950: New AMD Versal AI Edge Development Board From Trenz Electronic
Trenz Electronic has released a new Edge AI Versal FPGA development board that is unique compared to other similar boards.
AMD's Versal Series of system-on-chip devices have gained notoriety in the industry for their unique combination of GPU, Arm core processors, AI engines, DSP engines, FPGA programmable logic, and more, all within a single die. With multiple computing architectures available with in the same chip, AMD's idea is that the Versal chips will be able to meet the extremely low latency demands of industrial automation applications where the absolute latest data from sensors is critical to the system's overall functionality.
There are five different variations of the Versal chip in AMD's portfolio that each focus on a different constraint that users might encounter in their applications. The Edge AI series of Versal chips specifically focuses on optimized performance for power and thermal constrained applications with the most optimized performance on the lowest power input.
Since edge devices are extremely common these days in the deployment of AI models, I have been surprised at the fairly narrow selection of development boards for the Versal Edge AI chips. Which is why Trenz Electronic's announcement of their new Versal Edge AI Evalboard, the TE0950, caught my attention.
The TE0950 is an AMD Versal AI Edge Evalboard with VE2302 device with 8 GB DDR4 SDRAM, 128 MB SPI Flash or MicroSD card for primary boot options, 32 GB eMMC as secondary boot option, 32 MB SPI Flash, EEPROM with MAC-address, zQSFP cage with 4 GTYP Transceiver, 2x CRUVI HS and 2x CRUVI LS connectors for expansion, CSI-2 connector for cameras, and FMC with 4 GTYP Transceiver and 34 LA differential pairs.
Another interesting option on the TE0950 is that it also has a Artix 7 FPGA on it to use as a configurable level-shifter/MUX for FMC and other 3.3 V I/Os. Given that it has direct routing to the FMC connector and CRUVI HS connectors, there are endless options for utilizing the extra logic for more than just level shifting. It could be implemented as a system controller as well.
As I previously mentioned, I've only seen three other development boards for the Edge AI Versal chip. Two of those three use the same mid-range VE2302 Edge AI Versal chip that the TE0950 uses (the iW-RainboW-G57D from iWave Systems and VD100 from Alinx), while the third (the VEK280 Evaluation Kit from AMD) uses the top end VEK280 Edge AI Versal chip.
Needless to say, the TE0950 is a fraction of the price of the VEK280 Evaluation Kit due to the difference in Versal chip at $810 vs $6995. There is a very large gap between the specs of the VE2302 and VEK280 (orders of magnitude almost across the board), but again that stems from the target use case of the VE2302 being optimized for power and thermal constrained applications while the VEK280 is optimized for the peak performance possible.
The iW-RainboW-G57D from iWave Systems sits at a price-point of around $1800 and implements the VE2302 Versal as a system-on-module (SoM). It does not have an additional controller chip like the Artix on the TE0950, but it does have HDMI and SDI connectors that the TE0950 does not have.
The VD100 from Alinx is another SoM implementation of the VE2302 chip at a price-point of $800, again it does not have an additional controller chip like the Artix on the TE0950, but it has a PCIE 3.0 interface.
Overall, the TE0950 fills a gap in the market for Edge AI Versal chips being on the lower end of the cost spectrum while offering peripherals not found on other development boards currently available.
Trenz Electronic is also very good about keeping documentation for their boards up-to-date (see the TE0950 TRM here), as well as providing good reference designs to help users get started.
Currently the TE0950 is available to order on Trenz's website, but is showing a current ship date of June 21st, 2024.
