XMOS launches development environment

The sliceKIT range comprises a base board featuring a 16 core xCORE part. This has four expansion slots that can be populated with I/O extension cards, which XMOS calls slices. A range of standard slices is available, including Ethernet, UART, lcd graphics and digital audio. "sliceKIT provides a flexible platform for embedded designs," said XMOS' chief executive Nigel Toon. "You can put down the interfaces you need to match your exact requirements; sliceKIT provides a hardware development platform that matches your system requirement." Each sliceKIT I/O slice is supplied complete with a demo application, so that engineers can get their hardware configuration up and running quickly and easily. Slices connect to the processor board using low cost PCIe style connectors, making it a straightforward task for users to interchange and experiment with hardware configurations. XMOS is also encouraging designers to build their own I/O slices if they have custom requirements. A sliceKIT starter kit is available. This provides the base board, along with GPIO and Ethernet slice cards, plus the xTAG real time debug adaptor. Applications can be developed using xTIMEcomposer Studio.