Nu
Horizons Electronics Corp. Announces Availability of the
Industry's First Development Platform for Xilinx®
Two Million-Gate Spartan™-3 FPGA Through Free TechOnLine®
Design Lab
Complimentary Web-based Virtual
Online Lab Provides Evaluation Access To Low Cost Spartan™-3
FPGA and Showcases Embedded Processing Applications
Melville,
NY - December 02, 2004 - Nu Horizons Electronics Corp.
(NASDAQ:NUHC), a leading distributor of high technology
active components, today announced two new development
platforms based on the Spartan™-3 family of low cost
FPGAs from Xilinx. Featuring the 2 million-gate XC3S2000
FPGA and 1.5 million-gate XC3S1500, each platform offers
a complete customized design environment for a broad range
of development applications including: Xilinx MicroBlaze™
soft processor, DSP and industrial systems, data communications,
telecommunications and universal prototyping. To provide
customers with immediate availability to this technology,
Nu Horizons has partnered with online educational resource
company TechOnLine® to create a virtual lab environment
-- enabling free evaluation of the Xilinx Spartan™-3
FPGA via the Internet using Nu Horizons' XC3S2000 Development
Platform.
"Our
internal engineering staff has worked closely with Xilinx
to build two low cost platforms that showcase Xilinx's
leading edge FPGA products," explains Athar Zafar,
vice president of global engineering for Nu Horizons.
"By placing the XC3S2000 FPGA in an online evaluation
and development environment, we're offering engineers
early design access, as well as eliminating the exploratory
costs typically involved with testing new technology."
VirtuaLab™,
hosted by TechOnLine, allows designers to evaluate hardware
and software tools via a Web browser by providing information,
training and resources to help make knowledgeable design
and purchasing decisions. The Nu Horizons VirtuaLab consists
of several FPGA design scenarios:
- Lab
1- Inverse Discrete Cosine Transform (IDCT) Hardware
Acceleration - utilizes the MicroBlaze soft processor
core and the Fast Simplex Link (FSL) that demonstrates
the advantages of using hardware functions to accelerate
software. The FSL interface allows the software application
to "see" the hardware as a simple function
call. Using the FSL and custom hardware blocks can increase
the performance of software running on the MicroBlaze
soft processor core.
- Lab
2 - PWM Controller - utilizes the MicroBlaze soft processor
with the OPB IPIF which provides a bi-directional interface
between PWM Controller core and the OPB 32-Bit bus standard.
The PWM controllers mark and space periods are controlled
via a hyper terminal interface that reads and writes
the control registers for each of the four channels.
The interface also utilizes the MIR register to provide
a software reset to the PWM core.
- Lab
3 - Flash Programming via Serial Interface with Boot
Loader - this application allows the engineer to program
the on board STMicroelectronics 2Mx16 Flash in byte
mode via the serial port interface. The example converts
a sample application into binary format, transfers the
data via the Flash Configuration Interface GUI, and
allows the user to execute the program from the STMicroelectronics
Flash.
According
to Jim Burnham, strategic marketing manager in the Xilinx
Embedded Processor Division, "The 2000 and 1500 development
platforms from Nu Horizons offer engineers a strong design
solution for building and evaluating embedded applications
using MicroBlaze. The additional power of the FSL interface
lets designers make hardware/software trade-offs. Moving
an IDCT software function to hardware is an excellent
example of increasing performance through hardware acceleration.
It is very exciting that an engineer can get access to
the latest development boards from Nu Horizons and try
them out free on TechOnLine's VirtuaLab."
Each
system platform has feature-rich functionality with 16MByte
of SDRAM, 32-Mbit Flash and a footprint for a 32-Mbit
SSRAM. Also included is an external Ethernet controller
with integrated PHY, as well as an external Ethernet PHY
for evaluating the EMAC core from Xilinx allowing the
end user to conserve FPGA gates. The system board also
holds STMicroelectronics L9616 CAN 2.0B physical layer
device to create and evaluate CAN to Ethernet gateways,
and Linear Technology's 16-Bit 250ksps A/D converter and
complimentary 8µs settling time D/A converters for
low to mid range DSP and GPP designs.
Additional
Nu Horizons 1500/2000 Development Platforms features include:
- Xilinx
Spartan-3 FPGA XC3S1500-4 FG676 and XC3S2000-4 FG676
- ISSI
64Mb SDRAM (IS42S16400)
- ST
32Mb Flash (M29W320DB)
- ST
High Speed CAN 2.0B PHY Interface (L9616)
- 4
X 20 Character LCD Interface
- Sharp
LCD Panel Connector I/F
- SMSC
10/100 Ethernet MAC & PHY (LAN91C111)
- ICS
10/100 Ethernet Phy (ICS1893BF)
- Linear
Technology 2 Channel 16-Bit A/D - D/A (LTC1654 D/A,
LTC1865L A/D)
- ST
Audio CODEC (STW5093)
- PS2
Port Interface
- Intersil
2 - RS232 Serial Ports (ICL3237)
- 16-Bit
LVDS I/F with Control Signals
- Parallel
Cable 3 & 4 JTAG configuration support
- ICS
PLL System Clock Generator (ICS 511, ICS8422)
With
the addition of plug-in evaluation modules from Linear
Technology, engineers are able to utilize Analog to Digital
converters with 10/12/14-Bit resolution and sampling rates
from 10 to 135Msps. Plug-in evaluation modules from Intersil
allow engineers to utilize Digital to Analog converters
with 8/10/12/14-Bit resolution and throughput rates of
130 to 260 MHz - for use in applications such as Medical
Imaging, 3G-4G Base Stations and Spectral Analysis.
Nu
Horizons Spartan-3 development platforms provide the lowest
cost design tools presently available, and are enhanced
with a multitude of bundling options and lead times ranging
from four to six weeks. Detailed information, including
product availability, board specifications, upcoming design
training classes and workshops may be found at http://www.nuhorizons.com/sp3.
Ordering
part numbers and pricing are as follows:
- HW-AFX-SP3-1500DB
with the XC3S1500 is $399.00 - which is several hundred
dollars less than competitive development tools.
- HW-AFX-SP3-2000DB
with the XC3S2000 can be purchased for $449.00, but
is available to evaluate at no cost via the TechOnLine
VirtuaLab.
- Bundling
options are available for each platform covering ISE
Software, DSP and MicroBlaze solutions.
To
schedule time to evaluate the Xilinx XC3S2000 FPGA on
TechOnLine's Nu Horizons VirtuaLab go to: http://www.techonline.com/community/ed_resource/virtualab/37343.
About Nu Horizons Electronics Corp.
Nu Horizons Electronics Corp. is a leading global distributor
of high technology active components, including analog,
clock and timing devices, communications, computer products,
discretes, flat panel display solutions, interface, logic,
memory, microcontrollers and microprocessors, opto electronics
and power, to a wide variety of commercial original equipment
manufacturers (OEMs). With sales facilities in thirty-seven
locations across North America and Asia, and logistics
centers in centralized locations throughout the globe,
Nu Horizons partners with a limited number of best-in-class
suppliers to provide in-depth product and solutions expertise
to its customers. Information on Nu Horizons and its services
is available at http://www.nuhorizons.com.
Xilinx,
MicroBlaze, Spartan-3, TechOnLine and VirtuaLab are trademarks
or registered trademarks of Xilinx, Inc. and TechOnLine
respectively in the United States and other countries.
Except
for historical information contained herein, the matters
set forth in this news release are forward looking statements
that involve certain risks and uncertainties that could
cause actual results to differ from those in the forward-looking
statements. Potential risks and uncertainties include
such factors as the level of business and consumer spending
for electronic products, the amount of sales of the Company's
products, the competitive environment within the electronic
component industry, the ability of the Company to continue
to expand its operations, the level of costs incurred
in connection with the Company's expansion efforts and
the financial strength of the Company's customers and
suppliers. Investors are also directed to consider other
risks and uncertainties discussed in documents filed by
the Company with the Securities and Exchange Commission. |
