ASMBL architecture

The 7 series devices are the fourth generation where Xilinx has used the Advanced Silicon Modular Block (ASMBL) architecture for implementation purposes. The idea behind this is to enable FPGA platforms optimized for different target applications. Looking at the 7 series families, we can see how different configurations of slices are brought together to achieve these goals. We can see how the pieces we covered in this chapter are arranged as columns to give us the resources we will be using for our example projects ahead:

Figure 1.10 – Xilinx UG474 7 series FPGAs CLB users' guide figure 2-1 (used with permission)

Now that we have looked at what makes up the Artix-7 and other 7 series, we need to get the Xilinx tools installed so that we can get to our first project.