Avnet Electronics Marketing, an operating group of Avnet, Inc. (NYSE: AVT), kicked off the North American leg of the international X-fest seminar series earlier this month. X-fest offers free hands-on training for FPGA, SoC, DSP and embedded systems designers targeting Xilinx® All Programmable products. Avnet has created a short video to give engineers an insider’s view of the event, which will run through January 2015 in locations around the globe. The video can be viewed here: http://bit.ly/1p1QtSY.

X-fest 2014 launches in North America! Attendees check out boards, and more at the design expo porti ...

X-fest 2014 launches in North America! Attendees check out boards, and more at the design expo portion of the show. (Photo: Business Wire)

Click to Tweet: VIDEO: @AvnetDesignWire gives sneak peek of #AvnetXfest 2014 technical seminars in new videos http://bit.ly/1qLfWWg

“Our vision for X-Fest is to provide the engineering community with the comprehensive systems-level training they need to take advantage of the powerful Zynq®-7000 All Programmable SoC from Xilinx, while also providing access to all the key technologies necessary to leverage this technology and accelerate development of next generation applications,” said Tim Barber, senior vice president, global design chain business development, Avnet Electronics Marketing. “The overwhelmingly positive response we have had from our first several events, especially around the IoT-related applications, demonstrates the unique value X-fest brings to the development world. We look forward to the next stops in North America, Europe and Asia.”

“X-fest continues to demonstrate its tremendous value as a source for deep-dive technical training; enabling engineers to realize the full potential of Xilinx's All Programmable FPGAs to lower bill-of-materials cost, reduce system power consumption and boost system performance,” said Chris Henry, vice president of sales operations, Xilinx. “As demand for complex embedded electronics continues to proliferate the market, X-fest remains a critical training opportunity for engineers and systems architects worldwide to learn how Xilinx and the broad ecosystem of suppliers represented here can support their design innovations.”

This year’s X-fest program features twelve technical courses based on Xilinx’s All Programmable devices, including the UltraScale™ product family. Participants can choose up to four courses from any of the three educational tracks. In addition, attendees have the opportunity to interact with industry experts and view hands-on product demonstrations featuring real-world solutions from top suppliers including Analog Devices Inc., STMicroelectronics, TE Connectivity and Texas Instruments. Course preview videos can be viewed here.

“The sessions I attended on UltraScale Memory Interfaces, Power & Thermal Design and HMI Building Blocks were quite relevant to our design, and delivered a lot of information in a relatively short period of time,” said X-fest attendee Charlie Mrdjenovich, chief technology officer, Fastec Imaging. “The partner exhibits were very useful also since they covered everything from development kits and add-on boards to processors, memories, sensors and connectors. I consider this event to have been time well spent.”

X-fest 2014/2015 Course Track Breakdown:

Design Essentials

  • Power and Thermal Design
  • UltraScale™ FPGA Memory Interfaces
  • Zynq®-7000 All Programmable SoC Boot and Configuration Procedures
  • Zynq®-7000 All Programmable SoC Modules

Techniques & Applications

  • High Speed Digital Signal Processing in UltraScale™ FPGAs
  • Partial Reconfiguration in Zynq®-7000 All Programmable SoCs
  • Using Operating Systems with Zynq®-7000 All Programmable SoCs
  • Zynq®-7000 All Programmable SoC Intelligent Drives

Zynq®-7000 All Programmable SoCs & the IoT

  • Adding Smarter Vision to your Product with Zynq®-7000 All Programmable SoCs
  • Adding Wireless Connectivity to Zynq®-7000 All Programmable SoC Systems
  • Building Blocks for Enhancing User Interfaces
  • Making the IoT Smarter

Upcoming locations include Minneapolis, Dallas, Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal and Chicago. To view full course descriptions and registration information, click here to visit the X-fest 2014 website.

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About Avnet Electronics Marketing

Avnet Electronics Marketing is an operating group of Phoenix-based Avnet, Inc. that serves electronic original equipment manufacturers (EOEMs) and electronic manufacturing services (EMS) providers in more than 80 countries, distributing electronic components and embedded systems from leading manufacturers and providing associated design-chain, supply-chain and value-added integration services. The group's website is located at www.em.avnet.com.

About Avnet, Inc.

Avnet, Inc. (NYSE: AVT), a Fortune 500 company, is one of the largest distributors of electronic components, computer products and embedded technology serving customers globally. Avnet accelerates its partners' success by connecting the world's leading technology suppliers with a broad base of customers by providing cost-effective, value-added services and solutions. For the fiscal year ended June 28, 2014, Avnet generated revenue of $27.5 billion. For more information, visit www.avnet.com.