Product category:
Programmable Logic Devices
News Release from: Altera Europe | Subject: EP3C120
Edited by the Electronicstalk Editorial
Team on 26 June 2007
FPGAs cut power and cost
Compared with other FPGAs of similar density that typically consume more than a watt of standby power, the EP3C120 devices consume less than 200mW standby power.
Altera has begun shipping the EP3C120, the largest member of its new low-cost 65nm Cyclone III FPGA family Consuming only a fraction of the power needed by other FPGAs of comparable capacity, the EP3C120 is ideal for a broad range of applications requiring both high integration and low power, such as wireless communications infrastructure, software defined radio, and video processing and imaging
This article was originally published on Electronicstalk on 27 Jun 2008 at 8.00am (UK)
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Compared with other FPGAs of similar density that typically consume more than a watt of standby power, the EP3C120 devices consume less than 200mW standby power.
Power consumption is an increasing concern among developers as both businesses and consumers look for environmentally responsible products that reduce energy consumption and costs.
The low power consumption of the EP3C120 enables it to uniquely address power-sensitive applications or applications in thermally challenging environments where the heat generated by device operation cannot easily be dissipated, affecting product reliability and cost.
Further reading
Shrink to 40nm increases FPGA capabilities
The Stratix IV family has up to 680K logic elements, 2x bigger than Altera's Stratix III family, which currently comprise currently the largest FPGAs on the market.
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Stratix III FPGAs are the industry's first programmable logic devices able to support Gigabit Ethernet SGMII on LVDS pins.
"We are using our first EP3C120 devices in our next-generation wireless products".
"These products deliver high-quality, low-latency digital, video and voice data, offering capabilities to our customers that have not been possible in the past", says Tom Freeburg, Chief Technical Officer at MemoryLink.
"The Cyclone III FPGAs offer compelling features that make them ideal for our needs, including generous memory and DSP resources as well as the lowest power consumption".
"This enables us to integrate greater capabilities into our products while minimising our customers' energy costs".
"The market response to our new Cyclone III family has been tremendous", says Luanne Schirrmeister, Director of Marketing, Low-Cost Products, Altera Corporation.
"Applications such as software defined radio and emerging new wireless and video designs are looking for solutions that offer both high functionality and low power, all at a low cost".
"The EP3C120 delivers in all three of these areas and has enjoyed a very fast adoption into applications where low-cost FPGAs have traditionally not participated".
Leveraging TSMC's 65nm low-power (LP) process, Cyclone III FPGAs offer low power, a rich supply of logic (5000 to 120,000 logic elements), memory (up to 4Mbit) and digital signal processing (DSP) capabilities (up to 288 DSP multipliers).
The entire Cyclone III family is supported by Quartus II software version 7.1 in both subscription and the free web editions.
The advanced technology and productivity features in Quartus II software allow designers to exploit the full potential of the Cyclone III family to achieve 50% lower power consumption compared with the previous generation family, and three speed grades faster than the nearest low-cost FPGA competitor.
The Cyclone III EP3C120 FPGA is shipping now to customers, a month ahead of schedule.
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