Jeremy Banks, Curtiss-Wright Controls Defense Solutions
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Designing with FMCs: A different thought process
The FPGA Mezzanine Card (FMC – ANSI VITA 57.1) format provides a very powerful solution to high-end I/O requirements. FMCs offer a simple and straightforward, yet elegant, low-level interface. Their power comes from eschewing the burden of unneeded bus interfaces. However, successful implementation of the FMC requires that the system designer ask some critical questions beyond “does a driver exist for the right operating system?” Performing due diligence concerning electrical, mechanical, and software/HDL considerations will enable users to leverage the full benefits of the FMC format.
