FPGA Mezzanine Card (FMC) Standard

Developed by a consortium of companies ranging from FPGA vendors to end users, the FPGA Mezzanine Card is an ANSI standard that provides a standard mezzanine card form factor, connectors, and modular interface to an FPGA located on a base board. Decoupling the I/O interfaces from the FPGA simplifies I/O interface module design while maximizing carrier card reuse.

Key Benefits of FMC:

• Data throughput: Individual signaling speeds up to 10 Gb/s are supported, with a potential overall bandwidth of 40 Gb/s between mezzanine and carrier card
• Latency: Elimination of protocol overhead removes latency and ensures deterministic data delivery.
• Design simplicity: Expertise in protocol standards such as PCI, PCI Express®, or Serial RapidIO is not required.
• System overhead: Simplifying the system design reduces power consumption, IP core costs, engineering time, and material costs.
• Design reuse: Whether using a custom in-house board design or a commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) mezzanine or carrier card, the FMC standard promotes the ability to retarget existing FPGA/carrier card designs to a new I/O. All that is required is swapping out the FMC module and slightly adjusting the FPGA design.