An example is that the SmartFusion 2 Evaluation Kit allows for simplified development of transceiver I/O-based FPGA designs necessary in today's PCI Express (PCIe) and Gigabit Ethernet-based systems. For faster evaluation and prototyping, Microsemi's leading-edge evaluation board is small form-factor PCIe compliant, which can be used on any desktop PC or laptop with a PCIe slot. According to market research firm Infonetics, the carrier Ethernet market will grow to approximately $39 billion in 2017.

"Leveraging our experience as a leader in this market, Microsemi's new SmartFusion 2 SoC FPGA Evaluation Kit is the ideal development platform for designers just starting to work with FPGA-based processors. We've made it easier to implement new designs because designers aren't starting from scratch," said Venkatesh Narayanan, director of software and systems engineering at Microsemi. "

It is important for our OEMs to implement designs quickly and Microsemi's new kit provides the key mainstream features customers demand most, with a 25K LE SmartFusion 2 mainstream FPGA and SERDES evaluation capabilities at a very affordable price point."

The kit offers a comprehensive set of features that include PCIe, Gigabit Ethernet, full-duplex SERDES SMA pairs, DDR memory, SPI Flash, USB On-The-Go and several expansion interfaces that create the needed flexibility for a wide range of application development. With purchase of the evaluation kit, developers also have access to Microsemi's full array of industry leading development resources such as reference designs and the ability to launch example application demonstrations.