Product category:
Programmable Logic Devices
News Release from: Altera Europe | Subject: Arria GX family of FPGAs
Edited by the Electronicstalk Editorial
Team on 10 May 2007
Low-cost FPGAs released
To immediately start designing with Arria GX devices, customers can use Quartus II design software version 7.1.
Altera has released the low-cost Arria GX family of FPGAs, optimised to support PCI Express (PCIe), Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) and Serial RapidIO (SRIO) standards up to 2.5Gbit/s These standards are rapidly emerging as mainstream protocols in a wide variety of markets and applications
This article was originally published on Electronicstalk on 27 Jun 2008 at 8.00am (UK)
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Features of the Arria GX family include the proven Stratix II GX transceiver technology, flip-chip packages for superior signal integrity, software tools and verified intellectual property (IP) cores.
To immediately start designing with Arria GX devices, customers can use Quartus II design software version 7.1.
Volume production begins in June of this year.
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The Arria GX family is composed of five devices ranging in density from 21,580 to 90,220 logic elements (LEs), up to 4.5Mbit of embedded memory and up to 176 multipliers, and is built on TSMC's established 90nm process.
The family addresses the rapidly growing need for low-cost FPGAs with transceivers in the communications, computer, storage and industrial markets.
"What differentiates Arria GX devices from other offerings in the market is not one particular element but a combination of powerful attributes", said Jordan Plofsky, Altera's Senior Vice President of Marketing.
"Primarily, customers are getting a very reliable product -- proven transceiver technology built on a proven process".
"Next, the price is unparalleled for such a comprehensive product".
"Finally, we designed it to maintain the best levels of signal integrity -- each member of this family is available in flip-chip packages".
"These are the key elements our customers told us were most important for the applications we are targeting".
Arria GX FPGAs provide up to 12 full-duplex transceiver channels optimised to implement the PCIe, GbE and SRIO protocols.
These transceivers are based on the same technology that has demonstrated its success in the high-end Stratix II GX family.
The devices use flip-chip packaging technology, which provides a significant signal integrity advantage over wire-bond packages when combining transceivers with advanced memory interfaces.
"The Arria GX family, with its embedded transceivers, enables customers to combine our IP subsystem solutions into a low-cost, single-chip protocol solution such as our new NIC Controller, which bridges PCI Express with Ethernet MAC or SPI-4.2", said Francois Balay, President of MoreThanIP.
Arria GX FPGAs offer a design environment that includes software tools, complete characterisation reports, reference designs and verified IP cores.
Also available is a protocol-specific development kit with support for PCIe x1 and x4, SRIO and GbE.
Designers can begin their Arria GX designs today by downloading and installing the easy to use Quartus II development software version 7.1.
The Quartus II software also integrates seamlessly with third-party synthesis and simulation tools.
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