Introducing the Lattice Nexus Platform

As the leader in low power programmability, Lattice has set the standard for what low power, small form factor FPGAs can do in terms of performance and power consumption. We earned and maintained that position through a culture committed to customer support and consultation. For example, before we began active development of the Lattice Nexus platform, we met over 100 different customer design teams to get their input on the technology trends they must support in future products, and the design challenges they need to overcome to get those products to market. Based on those discussions, five trends stood out:

• 5G is spurring growth in both cellular network infrastructure and connected devices
• Growing interest among OEMs in leveraging AI/ML-powered embedded vision so visual data can drive device autonomy
• Increasing adoption of electronics in safety critical applications
• Continued expansion of smart home and smart factory applications
• Ongoing growth in cloud-based platforms for data storage and analysis

Figure 1: Technology trends like 5G and embedded vision are shaping how components for Edge devices are developed.

Which brings us to an exciting development here at Lattice. We’re now shipping products developed on our new FPGA platform, Lattice Nexus™.

The platform is architected to deliver power-efficient performance that benefits developers of a wide range of applications, including AI for IoT, video, hardware security, embedded vision, 5G infrastructure and industrial/automotive automation. Lattice Nexus is built with innovations at every level of design, including solutions, architecture, and circuit. Let’s take quick look at each of these innovations.

• At the system level, Lattice Nexus provides innovative solutions that combine design software and pre-engineered soft IP blocks with evaluation boards, kits and reference designs to enable developers to build their systems more quickly. These solutions target key growth application areas like embedded vision and include solutions like sensor bridging, sensor aggregation and image processing. With these solutions, customers can create new or update existing Edge designs, even if they don’t have expertise working with FPGAs.
• Lattice developed a new FPGA architecture for Lattice Nexus including innovative architectural features that optimize system performance for low power Edge processing. For example, the platform’s optimized DSP blocks and higher on-chip memory capacity enable power-efficient computing, such as AI inferencing algorithms, and runs twice as fast at half the power of Lattice’s previous FPGAs.
• Lattice Nexus also uses innovative circuit design to deliver key capabilities to customers, including programmable power-performance optimization and very fast configuration for instant-on applications. The platform was developed on high-volume 28 nm fully-depleted silicon-on-insulator (FD-SOI) process technology that features 50 percent lower transistor leakage compared to bulk CMOS.

In addition to announcing the Lattice Nexus platform itself, we also announced the first product developed on the platform, CrossLink-NX, but that’s a topic for a separate blog.

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