Stratix III FPGA Design Advances
Altera is the industry leader in high-end FPGA shipments, with devices designed into a wide variety of high-performance standards-based applications such as Gigabit Passive Optical Network (GPON) and WiMAX.
Stratix FPGAs —
Altera's First Family of High-Density, High-Performance Devices
In 2002, Altera introduced the first family of high-density, high-performance FPGAs in the Stratix® series. These 0.13-micron devices were the beginning of what has become an award winning series of programmable logic solutions for highly complex systems.
Stratix II FPGAs —
Devices with Higher Density, Higher Performance and Enhanced I/O
The Stratix II FPGA family followed in 2004. This 90-nm device family was developed by working with customers to uncover what features and benefits were really needed for their next-generation high-end systems, and creating devices to meet those needs.
The process of interviewing customers and holding Customer Advisory Board (CAB) meetings made the requirements for Stratix II FPGAs clear — performance and density in the core with enhanced I/O features for high-speed interconnect and external memory interfaces. In addition, Altera identified some innovative custom logic features to add to the Stratix family:
- A revolutionary new logic structure called the adaptive logic module (ALM)
- Enhanced digital signal processing (DSP) blocks with saturation and rounding capabilities
- Dedicated external memory interfaces for DDR2 SDRAM and RLDRAM-II
- Unique, non-volatile design security
- An architecture built on a 90-nm, 1.2-V process
Stratix III FPGAs —
Altera's Lowest Power High-Performance Device Family Yet
In 2006, with Stratix II devices meeting the needs of systems that were just coming into production, Altera again looked ahead to what would be needed for the next generation of designs. Continued dialogue with customers disclosed the main concerns for future designs were system performance, density, power and signal integrity.
To save power in the core of the device, Altera developed unique power conservation features. These features were then enabled through the use of the latest version of the PowerPlay power analysis and optimization tool within the Quartus® II development software. The Stratix III architecture maintains all of the innovative custom logic features of the previous Stratix families, and adds:
Quartus II Development Tool —
Exceed Performance and Finish Faster
The density and performance of Stratix III FPGAs are equivalent to an advanced standard cell ASIC. To maximize system performance and minimize development time, you need a robust, ASIC-strength design environment . The Quartus II software delivers the most advanced development tool in the industry and includes:
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