Visible to Intel only — GUID: oel1544724051709
Ixiasoft
Visible to Intel only — GUID: oel1544724051709
Ixiasoft
2. Introduction to the Hard Processor System
The Intel® Agilex™ system-on-a-chip (SoC) is composed of two distinct portions: a 64-bit quad core ARM® Cortex*-A53 MPCore™ hard processor system (HPS) and an FPGA. The HPS architecture integrates a wide set of peripherals that reduce board size and increase performance within a system.
- Dedicated I/O interfaces
- FPGA fabric interfaces
- FPGA secure device manager (SDM) interfaces
- Quad core ARM® Cortex*-A53 MPCore™ processor
- Level 3 (L3) interconnect
- Cache Coherency Unit (CCU)
- System Memory Management Unit (SMMU)
- Multi-port front end (MPFE) subsystem, consisting of the hard memory controller adaptor and interface to the CCU interconnect
- DMA Controller
- On-chip RAM
- Debug components
- PLLs
- Flash memory controllers
- Support peripherals
- Interface peripherals
The HPS incorporates third-party intellectual property (IP) from several vendors.
- FPGA fabric
- PLLs
- User I/O
- Hard memory controllers
- Secure Device Manager (SDM)
The HPS and FPGA portions of the device each have their own pins. The HPS has dedicated I/O pins. You can also route most of the HPS peripherals into the FPGA fabric to use the FPGA I/O. You can configure pin placement assignments when you instantiate the HPS component in Intel® Platform Designer System Integration Tool.
- FPGA configures first and then optionally boots the HPS (also called FPGA Configuration First).
- HPS boots first and then configures the FPGA (called HPS Boot First).
For more information, refer to the "Boot and Configuration" appendix.