Migrating to Versal™: Overcoming Toolchains and Learning Curve Challenges

Migrating from UltraScale/UltraScale+ to AMD’s VersalTM series offers significant gains in computational power and speed, but it also presents challenges. Engineers must overcome technical hurdles, adapt to new toolchains, and navigate a steep learning curve to ensure a smooth transition.

These shifts are especially critical in sensor fusion applications, where performance gains depend on architecture-aware design. Understanding what’s different — and why it matters — is key to making the most of the move.

Migration Benefits

Versal™ is a game-changer for sensor fusion. Modern sensor fusion architectures aggregate massive raw data streams in real-time, utilizing high-speed interconnects like PCIe Gen 4/5 and 100G Ethernet to enable:

• Improved SWaP with optimal I/O performance for more processing per slot
• Greater bandwidth and enhanced connectivity to support high-speed transfers
• AI cores for inference. AI cores act as matrix multipliers, dramatically improving SWaP and enabling computation-heavy applications such as radar and imaging
• Enhanced security features such as MACsec encryption

Migrating to Versal is not just about speed. It’s about equipping your architecture to handle real-time, data-intensive workloads with precision and scalability.

Toolchains and Learning Curve

If you’re using AI cores, migrating to Versal requires a different toolchain than those used for previous generations. AMD introduced Vitis to automate the deployment of existing inference algorithms to Versal AI cores, allowing engineers to integrate open source code and execute it on FPGA-based AI cores.

However, mastering the new toolchain comes with a steep learning curve: engineers typically need six months to a year to become proficient with Vitis.

If you’re not using AI cores, you can use the same toolchain as UltraScale/UltraScale+, but additional definition is required as intrachip routing, FPGA resource conditions, hard IP vs. soft IP, and various overhead functionalities can add steps to the design process.

Balancing Short-Term Complexity with Long-Term Gain

Versal unlocks powerful sensor fusion capabilities, but that advancement comes at a price: the need to master new toolchains and invest time and resources in the transition. However, expanded capabilities that drive modern applications can make the investment well worth it. By understanding these challenges upfront, engineers can maximize the benefits of Versal’s next-generation architecture.

Have questions about migrating to Versal or optimizing your FPGA design? Talk to our engineering team to explore your options.