Date: 3rd Nov 09
Low cost Cyclone IV FPGA from Altera
with high-speed serial comm. transceiver
Altera has released the new low cost Cyclone IV FPGA family
that adds support for mainstream serial protocols. This
family offers interesting features but at low cost. The
Cyclone IV FPGA family is suitable for high bandwidth multimedia
applications such as mobile video, voice, data access, and
high-quality 3D images.
The Cyclone IV FPGA family offers two variants. Cyclone
IV GX devices have up to 150K logic elements (LEs), up to
6.5-Mbits of RAM, up to 360 multipliers, and up to eight
integrated 3.125-Gbps transceivers supporting mainstream
protocols including Gigabit Ethernet (GbE), SDI, CPRI, V-by-One
and Cyclone IV GX has hard IP for PCI Express (PCIe). The
transceiver-less Cyclone IV E devices consume 25% low power
compared to previous Cyclone family FPGAs, making it suitable
for applications such as handheld software-defined radio.
"Cyclone IV FPGAs will expand the reach of FPGAs like
never before," said Vince Hu, vice president of product
and corporate marketing at Altera. "By rivaling the
cost of ASSPs and offering unmatched flexibility, Cyclone
IV FPGAs are the obvious choice for next-generation designs.
The innovative features of the Cyclone IV family make it
easy for designers to support multiple protocols, simplify
board design and create obsolescence-proof solutions that
will outlast ASSPs."
By integrating transceivers, Cyclone IV GX FPGAs eliminate
external component costs and reduce power consumption up
to 30 percent.
Altera has also made available new Quartus II software
version 9.1 for CPLD, FPGA and HardCopy ASIC designs. The
new features and enhancements within Quartus II software
v9.1 reduce compile times 20 percent, while continuing to
deliver on average 2X to 3X faster compile times compared
to high-density 40-nm and 65-nm designs.
Price:
The EP4CE6 and EP4CGX15: Starts at $3 and $6 for 250K pieces
Availability:
Production shipments of the EP4CGX15 and EP4CE115, the first
Cyclone IV GX and Cyclone IV E devices respectively, will
begin in the first quarter of 2010.
For more details visit www.altera.com
Editorial Product Rating: Average
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