With embedded hard digital signal processing (DSP) blocks, Stratix® series FPGAs are an ideal solution for high-performance, high-precision DSP applications. The DSP blocks are very power efficient and operate at far higher frequencies than the equivalent circuits in a soft implementation. When compared to DSP processors, Stratix series FPGAs deliver:
- DSP performance of an order of magnitude higher
- Ability to implement variable-precision signal processing (with Stratix V FPGAs only)
- Significantly lower system power consumption
- Smaller board space
- More platform scalability
The DSP block architecture has been optimized to implement various common DSP functions with maximum performance and minimum logic resource utilization. In addition to multipliers, each DSP block has functions that are frequently required in typical DSP algorithms. These functions include pre-adders, adders, subtractors, accumulators, coefficient register storage, and a summation unit. With these rich features, the DSP blocks in Stratix series FPGAs are ideal for applications with high-performance and computationally intensive signal processing functions, such as finite impulse response (FIR) filtering, fast Fourier transforms (FFTs), digital up/down conversion, high-definition (HD) video processing, and HD CODECs.
Table 1 compares the DSP resources in the Stratix series FPGA families.
| Table 1. A Comparison of the DSP Blocks in Stratix Series FPGAs | |||||
| Stratix Series FPGA Family (1) | Maximum DSP Block Frequency |
9x9 Multipliers per Block |
18x18 Multipliers per Block |
27x27 Multipliers per Block |
36x36 Multipliers per Block |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stratix FPGAs | 333 MHz | 8 | 4 | 1 | 1 |
| Stratix II FPGAs | 450 MHz | 8 | 4 | 1 | 1 |
| Stratix III FPGAs | 550 MHz | 8 | 4 | 2 | 2 |
| Stratix IV FPGAs | 550 MHz | 8 | 4 | 2 | 2 |
| Stratix V FPGAs (2) | 500 MHz | 12 | 8 | 4 | 2 |
- Select the appropriate Stratix series family link for complete details on DSP features in a specific Stratix series FPGA family.
- These numbers relate to the resources found in four variable-precision DSP blocks.
Related DSP Links
- Enabling High-Performance DSP with Stratix V Variable-Precision DSP Architecture webcast
- Enabling High-Performance DSP Applications with Stratix V Variable-Precision DSP Blocks (PDF) white paper
- Implementing High-Performance FIR Filters and FFTs in 28-nm FPGAs webcast
- Implementing FIR Filters and FFTs with 28-nm Variable-Precision DSP Architecture (PDF) white paper
- Achieving 1-TFLOPS Performance with 28-nm FPGAs webcast
- Achieving One TeraFLOPS with 28-nm FPGAs (PDF) white paper
- DSP intellectual property (IP) cores
