Alorium Tech XLR8 Application Accelerator & Development Board is an Arduino-compatible board that can be used as a drop-in replacement for the Arduino Uno. The XLR8's main processing chip is an Altera MAX10 Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) that provides a reconfigurable hardware platform.
The FPGA hosts a soft implementation of an ATmega328-compatible microcontroller, provides the ability to implement custom logic and can interface directly to the processor. XLR8 uses Arduino IDE to be programmed just like any standard Arduino-compatible board.
The XLR8 can drive arrays as large as 1280 pixels.
Arduino Compatible
The XLR8 was designed to look, feel and act like an Arduino. Load code directly to the XLR8 via the Arduino IDE. Sketches designed to target ATmega328 Arduino-compatible boards will also run on XLR8.
FPGA Accelerated Processing
An Altera MAX10 FPGA hosts the microntroller core and serves as the nerve center of the XLR8. The FPGA provides a platform for the hardware-accelerated functional units that enhances XLR8's performance.
Higher Performance
Hardware-accelerated functions run clock cycles required to execute software functions in a fraction of the time. This allows for faster computational speed and overall improved application performance.
Available Xcelerator Blocks
Xcelerator Blocks (XB) are optimized hardware implementations of a unique processor intensive function. The XLR8 has pre-installed XBs that target application-specific behavior. XLR8 can be field-updated to change the XBs implemented on the FPGA. A list of initial XBs available with XLR8 is provided below.
NeoPixel Control
NeoPixel control allows for new enhanced ways of using NeoPixels in projects with three key improvements:
- Data memory is not used for pixel
color storage - Interrupts are not disabled while updating the pixel array
- Changing pixel brightness does not corrupt color data.
Servo Control
Servo Control completely eliminates jitter that commonly faces developers using Arduino to control servos for drones, robotic platforms, sensor alignment or other applications.
The XLR8 servo control block can be used by simply including a different header file and then leaving the rest of your sketch completely unchanged.
Floating Point Math
Intense mathematical computation is a known challenge for applications using Arduino-compatible solutions. Floating Point XB provides hardware based floating point math implemented in the FPGA fabric.
Functions and operations can be accessed by installing the library and using floating point arithmetic functions.
