Accelerating Edge AI Storage with Validated PCIe Gen4 x4 Performance
MLE’s NVMe Fast FPGA RAID (NVMe FFRAID) now supports Trenz Electronic’s new TE0955 Starter Kit as a comprehensive FPGA Full System Stack for AMD Versal™ AI Edge adaptive SoC, bringing high-bandwidth, deterministic PCIe Gen4 solid-state drive (SSD) mass storage to embedded systems—without requiring deep FPGA design expertise.
Solving the Edge Storage and Memory Bottlenecks
Next-generation edge AI, robotics, and vision platforms ingest massive volumes of high-resolution sensor streams. Logging or buffering that raw data reliably without overloading the host CPU is one of the toughest challenges in embedded design. Traditionally, integrating PCIe Gen4 physical layers and complex NVMe protocol logic means dealing with steep learning curves, heavy OS driver overhead, and unpredictable integration delays.
NVMe FFRAID Verification & Performance Highlights
MLE implemented our NVMe FFRAID on the Trenz Electronic TE0955 Starter Kit. This combination delivers line-rate read and write performance for AMD Versal™ AI Edge Adaptive SoC:
- 16 GT/s Transfer Rate: Validated seamless communication with a commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) PCIe Gen4 x4 NVMe SSD.
- Full Protocol Offload: The NVMe protocol stack and DMA data paths run completely within the AMD Versal™ AI Edge programmable logic, offloading the scalar Arm® processor cores for critical application software.
- Better Memory Efficiency: Unlike processor-based approaches that waste DRAM on OS buffers and byte-padding, the FPGA implementation processes data in motion using dedicated on-chip registers and Block RAM. This enables zero-copy streaming directly to the SSD without intermediate memory hops, drastically reducing external RAM requirements and shielding projects from volatile memory supply constraints.
De-Risking System Design
As Premier Members of the AMD Embedded Partner Program, MLE and Trenz focus on reducing technical risk for system architects. By delivering a pre-verified storage pipeline directly on Trenz’s production-ready FPGA System-on-Module (SoM), development teams can skip low-level physical interface troubleshooting, build working prototypes immediately, and accelerate their product rollouts.
Getting Started
The verified NVMe FFRAID for the Trenz TE0955 Starter Kit is available now. MLE and Trenz also provide design and manufacturing services to help you customize carrier boards and optimize high-speed data pipelines for your specific production requirements.
Quickly Build and Validate Your FPGA Design on TE0955 with NVMe FFRAID
