FAQ

The XEM7350 is offered in three variants: the AMD Kintex-7 XC7K70T, XC7K160T, and XC7K410T. The high-gate-count K410T model provides up to 508,400 D Flip-Flops and 1,540 DSP slices, serving as a compact, full-featured integration system for high-performance design prototyping.

The XEM7350 utilizes a SuperSpeed USB 3.0 interface (Cypress FX3) for blazingly fast data transfers. Measured real-world data transfer performance exceeds 340 MiB/s using the FrontPanel SDK, ensuring efficient communication for demanding data-streaming applications.

The module includes 512 MiByte DDR3 SDRAM (4 Gib) with a high-speed data interface for extensive buffering. It also features two 16 MiB SPI Flash devices (32 MiB total non-volatile memory), with one dedicated to the FPGA to support gateware boot.

The XEM7350 features a single high pin count (HPC) FMC expansion connector providing access to 169 user I/O (on -160T and -410T models) and 8 multi-gigabit transceivers. These transceivers support standards such as PCI Express, DisplayPort, SATA, and JESD204B.

The board operates from a single 5-volt power source supplied through a DC power jack. Integrated device sensors allow real-time measurement of voltage, current, and temperature via the FrontPanel API.

Engineers use the XEM7350 as a 'digital brain' for ASIC/hardware-based simulation and protocol verification. Its high transfer rates and large user I/O count make it essential for analyzing high-speed digital signals and semiconductor performance against rigorous standards.

In Aerospace and Defense, it is frequently deployed for RADAR system field testing, satellite imagery analysis, and high-speed communications prototypes. The Kintex-7 FPGA provides massive parallel processing power for extreme environments.

Yes, its high DSP slice count and 512 MiB DDR3 memory allow it to act as a high-speed FPGA co-processor for edge AI tasks. It handles deterministic AI inference for real-time acquisition without the latency of traditional PC interfaces.

The XEM7350 serves as a high-performance camera interface for IR and LIDAR 3D cameras. It can process and stream massive amounts of image data in real-time for smart factory analytics.

Research institutions rely on the XEM7350 for stable, off-the-shelf USB-to-FPGA connectivity. This allows focus on breakthroughs in bioinformatics and mineral exploration rather than custom PC interconnects.

The FrontPanel SDK is an easy-to-use, robust software platform that manages all interaction between host software and FPGA internals. It provides a consistent software API and lightweight HDL IP blocks.

The SDK supports Windows, Linux (Ubuntu/CentOS), and macOS. Supported languages include C, C++, C#, Ruby, Python, and Java, with pre-built wrappers for tools like MATLAB and LabVIEW.

FrontPanel utilizes four primary endpoint types:

• Wires: Periodic status and control signals.
• Triggers: Asynchronous event signals for handshaking.
• Pipes: High-speed synchronous bulk data transfers.
• Registers: Addressable read/write access to internal logic.

Developers can use XML descriptions to define virtual control panels. FrontPanel 6 also introduces a browser-based platform using JavaScript, HTML, and CSS.

1. HDL Design: Create FPGA logic in AMD Vivado and integrate FrontPanel HDL IP blocks.
2. Software Integration: Use the FrontPanel SDK to define the data path.
3. Deployment: Use the FrontPanel Application for immediate observability or build standalone production executables.

JTAG pins are wired directly to a header for configuration and logic analysis using a Xilinx JTAG cable. This facilitates real-time on-chip debugging via AMD Vivado Hardware Manager (ChipScope).

Opal Kelly products are strictly lifecycle managed with updates provided as Production, Limited Production, or End-of-Life. Current updates are at opalkelly.com/products/lifecycle.

Released on May 27, 2014, the XEM7350 is currently in Production. It serves as a flagship development powerhouse with an estimated component end-of-life reaching 2040.