ACAP, a new category of heterogeneous compute devices, will use Micron Xccela flash and other Micron memory solutions to reduce system startup times and increase system responsiveness in automotive, industrial, networking and consumer applications that use artificial intelligence (AI)
Micron Technology, an industry leader in innovative memory and storage solutions, has announced that it is working with Xilinx to boost the boot and dynamic configuration performance of Xilinx’s Versal platform, the industry’s first adaptive compute acceleration platform (ACAP).
About Xilinx Versal ACAP
Xilinx Versal ACAP is built for AI inference in emerging applications of data center, automotive, 5G infrastructure, aerospace, defense, and test and measurement. Using the Xccela bus interface, a JEDEC xSPI-compliant standard developed and promoted by the Xccela Consortium, Xilinx Versal ACAP increases boot and configuration performance by eight times, compared to prior-generation FPGA platforms using quad serial peripheral interface (SPI) NOR flash. Xccela flash delivers up to 400 megabytes per second in double data rate mode while consuming 30% less effective energy per bit over traditional quad SPI NOR flash.
Xccela flash expands Micron’s leading-edge 45 nm NOR flash portfolio of solutions, which are manufactured at its wafer fabrication facility in Manassas, Virginia. Micron’s Xccela flash product family meets the Automotive Electronics Council qualification standard (AEC-Q100), supporting temperature ranges from -40 C to 125 C and densities from 256Mb to 2Gb. All densities and temperature ranges are available for ordering in volume quantities.
“Xilinx’s choice to support Xccela flash in its Versal ACAP is a testament to the growing importance of bandwidth for memory and storage used in artificial intelligence applications,” said Richard De Caro, director of NOR flash for Micron’s Embedded Business Unit.
He added, “As autonomous driving vehicles incorporate higher levels of artificial intelligence inference capabilities into advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS), Xccela flash enables Versal ACAP-based systems to power up and configure rapidly to meet ADAS application requirements.”
The rising complexity of AI and machine learning systems is driving an ever greater need to complement processing power with more memory and storage for faster data processing. Increased amounts of memory and storage help avoid performance and throughput bottlenecks while transforming vast amounts of data into insights.