Powering the XEM8350

The XEM8350 requires a clean, filtered, DC supply within the range of 5 V to 16 V.  This supply may be delivered through the DC power connector (rated to 5 A max current) or through the mezzanine connectors (rated to 16 A max current).

The XEM8350 power distribution system is quite complex, with several supplies designed to provide suitable, efficient power for several systems and modules. A block diagram of the system follows, with input (+VDC) shown to the left and accessible supply rails shown to the right.

Supply Heat Dissipation (IMPORTANT!!)

Due to the limited area available on the small form-factor of the XEM8350 and the density of logic provided, heat dissipation may be a concern.  This depends entirely on the end application and cannot be predicted in advance by Opal Kelly.  Heat sinks may be required on any of the devices on the XEM8350.  Of primary focus should be the FPGA (U15) and SDRAM (U24, U25, U26, U27, U28).  Although the switching supplies are high-efficiency, they are very compact and consume a small amount of PCB area for the current they can provide.

If you plan to put the XEM8350 in an enclosure, be sure to consider heat dissipation in your design.

FPGA heatsink information is provided on the Specifications Page

Power Supply

The XEM8350 is designed to be operated from a single 5-16-volt power source supplied through the DC power jack on the device.  This provides power for the several high-efficiency switching regulators on-board to provide multiple DC voltages for various components on the device as well as three adjustable supplies for the peripheral.

DC Power Connector

The DC power connector on the XEM8350 is part number PJ-102AH from CUI, Inc.  It is a standard “canon-style” 2.1mm / 5.5mm jack.  The outer ring is connected to DGND.  The center pin is connected to +VDC.

The PJ-102AH jack is rated for 5 A maximum continuous current. Applications requiring higher current must use the mezzanine connectors for providing power to the system (rated for a maximum of 16 A).

Power Budget

The table below can help you determine your power budget for each supply rail on the XEM8350.  All values are highly dependent on the application, speed, usage, and so on.  Entries we have made are based on typical values presented in component datasheets or approximations based on Xilinx power estimator results.  Shaded boxes represent unconnected rails to a particular component.  Empty boxes represent data that the user must provide based on power estimates.

The user may also need to adjust parameters we have already estimated (such as FPGA Vcco values) where appropriate. All values are shown in milliwatts (mW). Note that this table does not include the two supplies dedicated to the GTH transceivers. These are independent and can be computed separately for power budget based on their assigned function.

COMPONENT(S)0.95 V1.0 V1.2 V1.2 V1.8 V3.3 VVIO1 VIO2
Programmable clock150
FX3 USB Host Interface385
DDR4 VDD/VDDQ2,290
DDR4 VTT Termination300
DDR VPP330
Misc System Functions 2970
FPGA VCCINT, VCCINT_IO, VCCBRAM
FPGA MGTAVCC6,870
FPGA MGTAVTT1,810
FPGA MGTVCCAUX200
FPGA VCCAUX, VCCAUX_IO1,450
FPGA VCCO64 + VCCO65 (USB Host Interface)25
FPGA VCCO66 + VCCO67 + VCCO68 (DDR4)250
FPGA VCCO46 + VCCO47 + VCCO48
FPGA VCCO24 + VCCO25 + VCCO44 + VCCO45
Total (mW) 6,8701,8102,84022103,300
Available (mW)38,00080002,4004,8007,2006,6002000mA
0.95-1.8V
2000mA
0.95-1.8V

Example XEM8350-KU060 FPGA Power Consumption

XPower Estimator version 14.3 was used to compute the following power estimates for the Vccint supply. These are simply estimates; your design requirements may vary considerably. The numbers below indicate approximately 80% utilization.

COMPONENTPARAMETERSVCCINT POWER (MW)
Clock200 MHz GCLK, 400,000 fanout1,132
Clock300 MHz GCLK, 140,000 fanout954
Clock200 MHz SR, 50,000 fanout258
Logic200 MHz, 150,000 logic LUTs, 50,000 shift registers, 50,000 distributed RAMs, 400,000 registers2,766
Logic300 MHz, 50,000 logic LUTs, 140,000 registers487
Logic667 MHz (DDR4), 8000 logic LUTs155
BRAM18-bit, 200 MHz, 1000 block RAMs, 50% toggle rate2,636
BRAM36-bit, 300 MHz, 500 block RAMs, 50% toggle rate4,664
DSP500 MHz, 2200 slices, 12.5% toggle rate2,991
GTH32 channels, 16.3 Gb/s1,343
Misc.DCM, PLL, VCCINT_IO, etc.500
Total17,886 mW
Available38,000 mW