New-Tech Europe Magazine | April 2019

current and legacy designs, growing data rates and the fundamentals of Moore’s Law demanded an interface that could handle improved performance. The answer came in the form of VITA 57.4 FMC+, which was ratified and published through ANSI in July 2018. FMC+ was designed to expand upon the already popular FMC standard while avoiding the hassle of implementation into existing systems. FMC+ provides improved performance, faster data rates, and additional I/O, while utilizing the same footprint as FMC. Along with backwards compatibility with legacy FMC systems, FMC+ proves to be a stress-free improvement for any FPGA developer already using FMC. These improvements are due to a new high-speed connector array offered in a 14x40 configuration. When comparing this to legacy FMC, FMC+ offers 160 more pins, increases multi-gigabit interfaces from 10 to 24 MGTs, and supports the latest FPGA silicon with data rates up to 28Gbaud

in each direction. As an additional offering, FMC+ also supports the addition of an optional 4x20 array supporting up to 8 additional multi- gigabit interfaces yielding 32MGTs. FMC+isdue to followFMC inbecoming widely adopted due to its small form factor and design flexibility. One of

the most efficient features FMC+ boasts is its backwards compatibility. This allows legacy FMC mezzanines to be mated to FMC+ carriers. As a result, FMC+ proves to be invaluable to system designers who may not control both halves of the connector. This enables seamless integration

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