Fidus Systems

Canada

Fidus Systems, founded in 2001, specializes in leading-edge electronic product development with offices in Ottawa and Waterloo, Ontario, and San Jose, California. Our hardware, software, FPGA, verification, wireless, mechanical and signal integrity teams work to innovate, design and deliver next-generation products for customers in emerging technology markets. Fueled by 20+ years’ experience and creativity, along with our collaborative and process driven approach, we turn complex challenges into well-designed solutions.

 

And with over 400 customers and 3000+ completed projects, we have the expertise to be a seamless extension of your team, providing a clear focus and commitment to getting designs and prototypes to market faster. Once you start working with us, you’ll trust us like one of your own. Our hallmark is transparency. Our guiding principle is first time right.

Services

FPGA Design

Fidus brings world-class design, verification, and packaging expertise, and we are Xilinx’s first Premier North American Design Services partner. Our FPGA design services team use the latest Xilinx and Intel design tools to work on some of the highest-speed, most complex designs going. From high-end Virtex or Stratix designs to cost effective Artix or Cyclone designs.

 

Our versatile (VHDL or Verilog) FPGA team understands the challenges and methods required to achieve fabric speeds in the 100s of megahertz, timing closure at high utilization and power efficiency that won’t burn a hole in the board or in your project’s budget. We also pride ourselves in fitting the design into the most appropriate, most cost-effective device.

 

Whether it’s high-speed I/O like DDR4, PCIe Gen4, NVMe, Interlaken, 32G+ SERDES, DSP (like software defined radio or embedded vision) or optimizing a system by utilizing both ARM Processors and fabric, à la Zynq® – Fidus is a great choice for FPGA design services.

 

Since we have FPGA, Software, and Hardware development all under one roof, we’re a perfect choice for Zynq® UltraScale+™ and Intel SoC solutions.

Signal and Power Integrity

Tap into the experience of our signal integrity (SA) and Power Integrity (PI) teams — ensuring your high-speed project is properly modeled and constrained to achieve the maximum performance to cost ratio. The right tools, systems models, and interpretation of results and verification are all part of the rigorous process you can expect from us, ensuring your project is done right, the first time.

In today’s high-speed designs, Signal Integrity (SI) and Power Integrity (PI) is a must to achieve first-pass success. What is important? Which tools should you use for which scenarios? And, more importantly, how do you build system models and interpret the results? If you have a concern in a certain aspect of your design, Fidus is available to provide you with an opinion and recommendations. Our SI experts will ensure that your problem is being properly modeled, and that your design is properly constrained to achieve the maximum performance to cost ratio. For added confidence, our experts are also available for post-build verification.

 

We have been advising clients on optimum topologies for emerging memory technologies, interconnects within complex computing platforms (PCIe Gen 4), Interlaken systems (12.5Gbps links), FPGA transceivers (58G and 112G PAM4), and complex layer stacks using next generation laminates with buried capacitance to support the latest FPGA’s and ASIC’s. Use the Fidus SI team for a couple days or a couple months and let them put your mind and project at ease. You’ll be amazed at what they can do.

Software Design

Fidus provided highly responsive engineering teams that become an extension of your development team to successfully deliver your products to market faster.

 

To address the ever-increasing complexity of board support packages and low-level drivers, Fidus formed an Embedded Software team made up of highly skilled engineers. Today, clients continue to call on us to deliver simple to complex projects that call for skilled software development. The result? We deliver code that is easily followed, and easily supported by your team moving forward.

 

Our Software design team specializes in Linux-based ARM® designsPowerPC™MIPS® and x86 processors, to name a few. In addition, our embedded developers bring a wealth of experience when it comes to the latest ARM-based SoC’s, as well as the latest toolchains, development environments (IDE’s) and frameworks.

Hardware Design

The Fidus hardware team focuses on delivering high-speed, high complexity designs. We deliver designs that frequently utilize the world’s largest FPGAs, complex microprocessors, 100Gbps ASSPs, high-end data converters, multiple high-speed memory interfaces and complex power sub-systems. We really don’t care if it’s analog, digital or optical — we’ll get it done…and done well. We invest in and train on, some of the world’s best hardware design tools. This investment extends to our laboratories where we buy the best equipment to support the bring-up and proving of our designs.

 

So, whether you need a simple cost-effective board or a complex high-performance board that nobody seems able to design, give Fidus a call – we’ll get it done.

 

Check out our Hardware capability sheet for specific information on our expertise, tools, and projects.

PCB Layout and IC Packaging

Our PCB layout team hits the highs: High-speed, high frequency, high complexity, high layer counts, and high performance dielectrics! From simple standalone boards to very thick, high-speed, mixed technology, back drilled backplanes — we will find a creative solution to make it work.

 

Our seasoned PCB layout and IC packaging designers are some of the best around!

 

From 2 layer consumer products to 40+ layer multi-gigabit backplanes with complex laminates and stack-ups, you’re in good hands with our IPC recognized layout designers (CID/CID+). Whether your design requires complex technologies such as: blind/buried/micro vias, buried capacitance, precisely controlled impedance, fiber-weave direction control, multi-laminate, or mixed technology stacks – Fidus can do it. Perhaps you don’t need the latest everything, but cost or other factors are limiting your board construction – we’ll still make that work. Regardless of the design complexity, we always take a practical approach to providing you with the design that meets your targeted performance and cost.

 

Working with our PCB Layout team means not having to worry about DFM/DFA rules, high-speed routing, high-current routing, and layer stack-ups. We’ll take care of it all to ensure a high-yield and CM agnostic design. Check out our Capabilities.

 

In addition to PCB layout, Fidus has IC Packaging design capabilities that are fully complemented by our expert signal integrity team. This means we can design your package and model areas of interest.

UVM Verification

Extensive experience in digital design verification through planning and implementing re-usable verification environments. Using UVM™, SystemVerilog, and SYSTEMC® software, we catch mistakes in your designs, and make those designs better.

 

Fidus has extensive experience in Digital Design Verification through the planning and implementation of re-usable verification environments, and supports UVM™, SystemVerilog, and SystemC® software. We preserve your investment in legacy simulation environments/tools, help you transition to newer methodologies, and build new verification environments to achieve your quality goals.