AMD has released the SCU35 Evaluation Kit, a $229 (€211) development board built around the Spartan UltraScale+ SU35P FPGA. The board targets low-power industrial, medical, and data center applications requiring extensive I/O expansion and board management capabilities. With 36,000 logic cells, 304 total I/O pins, and 1.93 Mb of on-chip memory, the SU35P FPGA handles factory automation, robotics, IIoT gateways, smart patient monitors, and 4G/5G wireless infrastructure applications.
The 14 cm x 14 cm (5.5 inches x 5.5 inches) board provides exceptional expansion flexibility through Arduino UNO headers, two 40-pin Raspberry Pi GPIO headers, two Mikrobus headers (compatible with over 1,000 MikroE Click modules), four Pmod connectors, and an HSIO board-to-board connector. Onboard resources include 64 Mbit HyperRAM, 128 Mbit QSPI flash, a three-axis accelerometer, and 10/100 Mbps Ethernet. The headless design connects via USB-C for power delivery (up to 20V/65W) and includes a micro USB JTAG/UART debug port.
AMD supports the kit through its Vivado Design Suite and Vitis Unified Software Platform, offering example designs like MicroBlaze-based embedded systems and tutorials aimed at developers without FPGA experience. The board operates from 0°C to 45°C (32°F to 113°F) and stores from -25°C to 60°C (-13°F to 140°F).
The SCU35 evaluation kit is available now from AMD for $229 (€211) with an eight-week lead time. The price does not include a power supply, available separately through resellers, though any standard 20V/65W USB-C adapter works. AMD recommends the optional Platform Cable USB II debugger at $270 (€248) for advanced debugging, though the onboard USB JTAG port handles basic programming tasks.
