Nial Stewart Developments is an Edinburgh (UK) based design company specialising in FPGA design, but also associated hardware development.
Our experience is mainly with Intel and Xilinx (AMD) FPGAs and recently Efinix devices, from system architecture design and implementation to small module level design and test.
We also do hardware design to support FPGA implementations and have completed several complete product designs in conjunction with a local software company.
Our background is mostly digital design but we have good contacts with RF and Software design consultancies and are able to seek their input when required.
We have recently released our Aurora 64b66b IP core initially targeted at Efinix FPGAs, this provides an Aurora compatible interface that can be used for Efinix to
Xilinx interfacing, and also Efinix-to-Efinix comms.
We also have our FPGA Lock IP for IP and hardware protection to prevent cloning or CEM overbuilding.
Some brief details of what we’ve been working on recently are listed below.
FPGA Design
System communications architecture design.
JESD204B interfaces
Transceiver interfaces with custom protocol wrappers between Intel and Xilinx devices. 8B10B and 64B66B interfaces running at up to 10Gbps.
Embedded CPU implementations and interfaces, AXI etc (Xilinx Zynq devices).
Remote update of configuration flash images.
Interfaces with multiple ADS/ DACs / temperature / vibration sensors, I2C, SPI, parallel etc.
PCIe, Aurora interfaces.
LVDS custom communications links.
Devices: Intel: Stratix, Arria 10, Cyclone 10 GX/LP, Max 10.
Xilinx: Ultrascale+ MPSOC, Zynq, Artix 7.
Hardware Design
PCIE Board design, Cyclone IV FPGA (cheapest PCIe if FPGA). This included RF input and distribution of RF signals from 470- 860 MHz and the design of RF daughter boards to provide HD broadcast mux digital signals to the FPGA.
Q7 CPU module carrier board with ethernet, PCIe, SATA, HDMI, USB 2.0 interfaces.
Cyclone 10 LP based PCB with USB control in (off an integrated USB hub IC) to ADCs , ECG input and normal and isolated digital control outputs. This is integrated in a medical device.
Controlled impedance track design and implementation for the above.
Power supply design for all the above, mostly based on switcher ICs and careful PCB design.
