NetFPGA

NetFPGA 10G


The NetFPGA-10G is an FPGA-based PCI Express board with 10-Gigabit SFP+ interface, a x8 gen1 PCIe adapter card incorporating Xilinx’s Virtex-5 TX240TFPGA. It is ideal for the high bandwidth applications.

Features list:

  • Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) Logic
  • 10-Gigabit Ethernet networking ports
    • 4 SFP+ connectors
    • Connected to the FPGA through four Broadcom’s AEL2005 PHY devices
    • Supports both 10-Gigabit and 1-Gigabit modes
  • Quad Data Rate Static Random Access Memory (QDRII SRAM)
    • Suitable for storing and forwarding table data
    • 300MHz Quad data rate (1.2 Giga transactions every second), synchronous with the logic
    • Three parallel banks of 72 MBit QDRII+ memories
    • Total capacity: 27 MBytes
    • Cypress: CY7C1515KV18
  • Reduced Latency Random Access Memory (RLDRAM II)
    • Suitable for packet buffering
    • Four x36 RLDRAMII on-board device
    • 400MHz clock (800MT/s)
    • 115.2 Gbps peak memory throughput
    • Total Capacity: 288MByte
    • Micron: MT49H16M36HT-25
  • PCI Express Gen. 1
    • First generation PCI Express interface, 2.5Gbps/lane
    • 8 lanes (x8)
    • Hard IP
    • Provides CPU access to memory-mapped registers and memory on the NetFPGA hardware
    • x4 Gen.2 PCI Express can be used as a soft core
  • Storage
    • Two FLASH devices
    • Total Capacity: 256Mb
  • Expansion Interfaces
    • Two SAMTEC QTH connectors
    • Allowing to connect additional 20 RocketIO GTX transceivers
  • Additional Features
    • DB9 (RS232) Connector
    • User LEDs & Push Buttons
  • Standard PCIe Form Factor
    • Standard PCIe card
    • 3/4 length, full height
  • Flexible, Open-source code


To see the NetFPGA-10G repository and Wiki you will need to register.

Reference Projects

Title Organisation Documentation
Production Test Stanford University Wiki
RLDRAM Test Xilinx Wiki
10G Ethernet Interface Loopback Test Stanford University / University of Cambridge Wiki
1G Ethernet Interface Loopback Test Stanford University / University of Cambridge Wiki
Reference NIC 10G Stanford University / University of Cambridge Wiki
Reference NIC 1G Stanford University / University of Cambridge Wiki
Flash Configuration University of Cambridge Wiki
Learning CAM Switch University of Pisa / University of Cambridge Wiki

Contributed Projects

Title Organisation Documentation
NetFPGA-1G Ported Switch 10G University of Pisa / University of Cambridge Wiki
NetFPGA-1G Ported NIC 1G University of Pisa / University of Cambridge Wiki
NIC Stanford University / University of Cambridge Wiki
OpenFlow Switch Stanford University Wiki
NIC (SRAM) Stanford University / University of Cambridge Wiki
Simple 10G Switch Xilinx Wiki
NetFlow simple 10G Bram Universidad Autónoma de Madrid Wiki
Flash University of Cambridge Wiki



Where can I buy a NetFPGA 10G Platform?

It seems that my board is broken, what should I do?

What if I have Hardware problems with my board?

What if I have Software problems with my board?

You can exchange your ideas and questions with the NetFPGA 10G community here.

How can I get involved with the NetFPGA project?

How can I obtain the gateware and software package?


Once you have used the NetFPGA, we hope that you will contribute to the project.


You can find our Wiki here.