Versal™ ACAP devices include five types of programmable processors. Each type of processor provides different computation capabilities to meet different requirements of the overall system:
- Arm® Cortex™-A72 dual-core processor in the processor system (PS)
- Typically used for control-plane applications, operating systems, communications interfaces, and lower level or complex computations.
- Arm Cortex-R5F dual-core processor in the PS
- Typically used for applications requiring safety and determinism.
- MicroBlaze™ processors in the programmable logic (PL)
- (Optional) Typically used for data manipulation and transport, non-vector-based computation, and interfacing to the PS and other components on Versal ACAP.
- RCU and PPU units in the PMC
- Typically used for executing platform loader and manager (PLM) code.
- AI Engines
- Typically used for compute-intensive functions in vector implementations.
Another key block in Versal ACAP is the platform management controller (PMC). Typically used for executing PLM code. This block is responsible for boot, configuration, partial-reconfiguration, and life cycle management tasks such as security. For more information about PMC management of boot and partial reconfiguration, see Boot and Configuration.
This chapter briefly discusses:
- PS with dual-core Cortex-A72 and dual-core Cortex-R5F processors
- MicroBlaze processor in the PL
- Linux and bare-metal software stacks used with the processors
- Boot and configuration information
- Additional features relevant to a software engineer
For details about additional features such as the PMC, DDR bus width, number of DDR controllers, interconnect for CCIX and PCIe (CPM), and PCI Express® , see the Versal Architecture and Product Data Sheet: Overview (DS950). The Versal ACAP Technical Reference Manual (AM011) includes details on PMC/PS-centric content with a hardware architecture section that includes links to documents that describe other integrated hardware and peripherals including the CPM, DDR, AI Engine, PL, and more.