New-Tech Europe Magazine | April 2019

FMC Developments Support Legacy and Next-Gen Data Needs

Dylan Lang, Standards Manager, Samtec

While FMC celebrated its 10th anniversary this year, it continues to provide a variety of benefits to the embedded system developer. These include sustained implementation and deployment in new technologies. Additionally, the release of FMC+ provides improved design capabilities. However, with data rates always on the rise and shrinking form factors, the question arises, why does FMC continue to be so popular and what has sustained it over the years? With its ability to de-risk designs while cutting costs, Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) technology has allowed for more efficient design within the embedded marketspace. Often acting as an all-in-one solution, FPGAs negate the need for ASIC technology and reduce the cost of

custom IP algorithms in silicon. Even during post-processing, FPGAs allow engineers to modify their logic after silicon is on the board. The results allow for more efficient prototyping and a faster time to market. One of the biggest benefits to using FPGAs can also prove to be one of the biggest challenges. When diverse flexibility of an FPGA meets the demands of end users for a specific configuration, the interface layout could drag on indefinitely. COTS manufacturers are presented with an additional challenge to design a standard product that will please most of the market. If FPGA technology was to be a viable product for a mass market while still offering modularity, a different approach was needed in standard development. With the culmination

of system developers and connector manufacturers, the VITA Standards Organization, or VITA, had the means to drive such a standard, and FMC was born with VITA 57.1. While the FMC Standard has been in existence for over 10 years, it continues to be in high demand by a wide variety of COTS manufacturers and FPGA developers such as Abaco and Xilinx. Many adopters of FMC are attracted to features such as its small form factor and user-defined pins on the connector. FMC balances useful features designed to aid the end user while providing reliable I/O signal integrity at speeds up to 14Gb/s. The original intent behind FMC proves to be both a blend of ingenuity in design and necessity within the embedded community. While FMC is still readily used in

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