Quartus® II Design Software Now Supports Altera's Stratix™ Devices
Quartus® II Version 2.0 Design Software and Stratix™ Device Family Designed In Concert to Deliver Better Performance
San Jose, Calif., February 12, 2002 -- Designers can begin working immediately with Altera Corporation's (Nasdaq: ALTR) new Stratix™ device family using the Quartus® II version 2.0 design software. Integrating support for the advanced features of Altera's Stratix device family, the Quartus II version 2.0 design software enables designers to build system-on-a-programmable-chip (SOPC) solutions leveraging the programmable logic industry's most advanced device family.
Altera designed the Stratix device architecture and Quartus II version 2.0 design software in concert to achieve the highest possible performance and efficient compilation of customer designs. By taking advantage of the Stratix device family's unique features and the Quartus II LogicLock™ design flow, customers can increase their system performance by up to 100 percent compared to the APEX™ II device family when using Quartus II version 1.1 design software without the LogicLock design flow.
"The powerful combination of the Quartus II design software and the Stratix device family deliver a significant performance improvement for designs with complex arithmetic functions when compared to prior generation devices," said Tim Southgate, Altera's vice president of software and tools marketing. "Given that we are at the early stages of the Stratix device family's lifecycle, we expect additional push-button performance gains in the coming months."
The Quartus II version 2.0 design software also delivers on average a 25 percent compile time reduction on Stratix devices compared to prior generation devices. With the design software's fast fit compile option, which conserves the effort typically applied to achieve the best performance and results in fewer iterations of the fitting algorithm during placement, compile times are reduced an average 30 percent. In terms of performance, the greatest improvements can be seen in the higher-density devices of the Stratix family, which extends up to 114,140 logic elements and 10 Megabits of embedded memory, with pushbutton performance improvements of 40 percent on average and 60 percent on average for the highest density devices.
Support for Advanced Features
The Quartus II version 2.0 design software includes full support for advanced features found in Stratix devices such as TriMatrix™ memory, digital signal processing (DSP) blocks, phase locked loops (PLLs), and on-chip Terminator™ technology to maximize system-level design performance.
Additional benefits of combined silicon and software development include the optimization of incremental, block-based design methodologies and the introduction of advanced register packing algorithms allowing more logic to be placed in a given device.
LogicLock™ Block-Based Design Flow
By offering the LogicLock block-based design flow, the Quartus II version 2.0 design software is the only programmable logic device (PLD) design software to include block-based design methodologies as a standard feature. The LogicLock block-based design flow shortens design and verification cycles by providing system designers with the speed and flexibility needed to implement SOPC designs.
Stratix devices include DirectDrive™ continuous route lines to support and enhance the LogicLock design flow. DirectDrive technology ensures that the same routing and clocking resources are available to a predefined design block regardless of where it is placed within a device- enabling fast, deterministic performance. This deterministic performance allows designers to use the LogicLock block-based design methodology to develop intellectual property (IP) libraries of data processing and I/O functions that designers can reuse in any project using Altera's Stratix device family.
Register Packing Algorithms
The Quartus II version 2.0 design software's register packing algorithms result in an average of 15 percent fewer logic resources being consumed in Stratix devices than in previous Altera device families utilizing the same design, with higher-density devices achieving the greatest efficiencies. By targeting the Stratix device family with Quartus II version 2.0 design software, Altera customers can improve design performance while condensing silicon real estate.
Quartus® II Version 2.0 Design Software Pricing and Availability
Altera's Quartus II version 2.0 design software is now shipping to all customers on active subscription. Altera's software subscription program simplifies the process of obtaining Altera design software by consolidating all software products and maintenance charges into one annual subscription payment. The annual subscription for the Altera design software is $2,000 for a node-locked PC license, which includes full-featured Quartus II and MAX+PLUS® II design software, OEM synthesis tools from Exemplar Logic, OEM simulation tools from Model Technology, OEM embedded software development tools for ARM-based Excalibur devices, and 12 months of software upgrades. New or existing customers may obtain a software subscription online on the Altera web site, http://www.altera.com, or from Altera distributors worldwide.
About Stratix Devices
Stratix devices are based on a 1.5-V, 0.13-µm, all-layer copper SRAM process, with densities ranging from 10,570 to 114,140 logic elements (LEs) and up to 10 Mbits of RAM. Stratix devices offer up to 28 DSP blocks with up to 224 embedded multipliers, optimized for DSP applications that require high data processing. Stratix devices support various differential I/O electrical standards such as LVDS, LVPECL, PCML, and HyperTransport, as well as high-speed interfaces, including UTOPIA IV, SPI-4 Phase 2, SFI-4, 10G Ethernet XSBI, RapidIO, HyperTransport, and others. Stratix devices also offer a complete clock management solution with its hierarchical clock structure and up to 12 phase-locked loops (PLLs). More technical information about the Stratix device family is available at http://www.altera.com/stratix. For answers to frequently asked questions and to read what customers are saying about Stratix visit: http://www.altera.com/corporate/news_room/nr-index.jsp.
About Altera
Altera Corporation (Nasdaq: ALTR) is the world's pioneer in system-on-a-programmable-chip (SOPC) solutions. Combining programmable logic technology with software tools, intellectual property, and technical services, Altera provides high-value programmable solutions to approximately 14,000 customers worldwide. More information is available at http://www.altera.com.
Editor Contacts:
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Bruce Fienberg Altera Corporation (408) 544-6397 newsroom@altera.com |
