Atmel Introduces FFT Core for FPGAs

Atmel Corp. has introduced a Fast Fourier transform (FFT) processor intellectual property (IP) core for its AT40K FreeRAM field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs). FFTs are used for a variety of digital signal processor (DSP) applications in wireless systems. With Atmel's FFT core, the AT40K can be used for digital signal processing of real-time data generated by analog-to-digital converters (A/Ds).

The Atmel FFT processor core consists of a controller, a 256 x 12-b twiddle-factor read-only memory (ROM), a 256 x 12-b dual-port data random-access memory (RAM), and various address counters. The core is based on a decimation-in-frequency radix-2 algorithm and employs computation to optimize memory usage.

Atmel's AT40K family of PCI-compliant FPGAs includes a distributed 10 ns programmable synchronous/asynchronous, dual-port/single-port SRAM, eight global clocks, cache logic ability, and automatic component generators. These FPGAs support +3.3 and +5 VDC designs and are available in PLCC, PQFP, TQFP, VQFP, BGA, and PGA packages.