Cyclone III FPGA Starter Kit

from Altera

• Ordering Information
• Cyclone III and Nios II 32-bit Soft IP Processor
• High-Speed Mezzanine Card Interface
• Development Kit Contents
• Available Documentation
• Board Picture 
• Reference Designs 
• Related Links

The economical Cyclone^® III FPGA Starter Kit is easy to use and an ideal introduction if you have never designed with FPGAs before. If you are an experienced FPGA designer considering the Cyclone III architecture, you'll love building systems leveraging the 60 percent (on average) faster performance and 50 percent lower power that Cyclone III FPGAs offer over the competition. Several design examples included in the kit make for a quick "out-of-the-box" evaluation experience.

Ordering Information

Table 1. Cyclone III FPGA Starter Kit Ordering Code and Pricing Information (1)
Ordering Code	Price	Ordering Information
DK-START-3C25N	$199	Buy online via Altera's eStore or contact your local Altera® distributor to place your order.

Note:

1. You can purchase optional HSMC interface-compatible daughtercards, adapters, or cables to use with your development kit.

Cyclone III FPGAs and Nios II 32-Bit Soft IP Processor

Cyclone III FPGAs are perfectly suited as embedded processors or microcontrollers when combined with 32-bit embedded processor intellectual property (IP) cores. Popular 32-bit processor soft IP cores are listed below:

• Nios^® II processor from Altera
• Cortex-M1 from ARM^® 
• V1 ColdFire from Freescale^TM 
• Other 32-bit, 16-bit, and 8-bit embedded soft IP cores 

You can add many other functions to the Cyclone III FPGA with additional IP cores available from Altera and Altera's partners.

High-Speed Mezzanine Card Interface

Altera developed the specification for the high-speed mezzanine connector (HSMC), which is based on the Samtec mechanical connector, to define and standardize the interface between optional daughtercards and host boards. This specification outlines both the electrical and mechanical properties of the interface between daughtercard and host. You can also create your own HSMC interface-compatible daughtercards.

• Download a copy of the HSMC specification (PDF)

Development Kit Contents

The Cyclone III FPGA Starter Development Kit is RoHS compliant and features:

• Cyclone III starter board (see Figure 1)
  • Cyclone III EP3C25F324 FPGA
  • Configuration
    • Embedded USB-Blaster™ circuitry (includes an Altera EPM3128A CPLD) allowing download of FPGA configuration files via the user's USB port
  • Power and analog devices from Linear Technology
    • Switching power supply LTM4603EV-1 
    • Switching and step-down regulators LTC3413, LT1959, and LT1117 
  • Memory
    • 256 Mb of DDR SDRAM
    • 1 MB of synchronous SRAM
    • 16 MB of Intel P30/P33 flash
  • Clocking
    • 50-MHz on-board oscillator
  • Switches and indicators
    • Six push buttons total, four user controlled
    • Seven LEDs total, four user controlled
  • Connectors
    • HSMC
    • USB Type B
  • Cables and power
    • USB cable
    • External power supply (U.S. compatible plug with EU and UK adaptors)
• Cyclone III FPGA Starter Kit CD-ROM
  • Example designs targeting the Cyclone III FPGA starter board
    • Create an FPGA design in one hour
    • Power measurements of a Cyclone III FPGA
    • A 32-bit soft processor system inside an FPGA
  • Complete documentation (see Table 2)
    • User guide
    • Reference manual
    • Board schematic and layout
    • Bill of materials
    • Product and partner information
• Download instructions to receive the latest version of the following software (at no charge):
  • Quartus^® II Web Edition (FPGA design software)
  • ModelSim^®-Altera Web Edition (FPGA simulation software from ModelSim)
  • Nios II Embedded Design Suite, Evaluation Edition (32-bit microprocessor software)

Figure 1. Cyclone III FPGA Starter Board

Available Documentation

Reference Designs

Learn about the benefits of remotely updating FPGA designs by working with the Cyclone III Active Parallel Remote System Upgrade Reference Design. Details are described in AN 521: Cyclone III Active Parallel Remote System Upgrade Reference Design (PDF), and you can download the Quartus II design files for use on the Cyclone III FPGA Starter Kit.

• AN 521: Cyclone III Active Parallel Remote System Upgrade Reference Design (PDF)
• AN521 Design Example, Quartus files (1 MB)

For a detailed write-up on how to update systems with the remote update feature in Cyclone III FPGAs, read the Remote System Upgrade with Cyclone III Devices (PDF) chapter of the Cyclone III Device Handbook.

Related Links

• Other Cyclone III FPGA-based development kits
• Literature for Cyclone III low-cost FPGAs
• Altera's Nios II 32-bit embedded processor solutions
• Digital signal processing (DSP) in Cyclone III FPGAs
• Power Management Center for Altera devices