DSP Performance – Open Core Benchmark
Altera is the leader in digital signal processing (DSP) performance for FPGAs. Recent benchmarks compared the performance of Altera's and Xilinx's high-performance and low-cost FPGAs. These benchmarks used open source intellectual property (IP) cores readily available from www.opencores.org.
Results from the DSP open core benchmark show that:
- For high-density FPGAs, Altera's Stratix® II FPGAs offer 1.8x higher DSP performance than Virtex-4 FPGAs
- For low-cost FPGAs, Altera's Cyclone® II FPGAs offer 2x higher DSP performance than Spartan-3 FPGAs
The benchmark suite includes six open cores from www.opencores.org and each core has popularity statistics higher than 10 percent.
Figure 1 shows the high-density FPGA performance comparison between Altera's Stratix II and Xilinx's Virtex-4 FPGAs. Figure 2 shows the results of low-cost FPGA performance comparison between Altera’s Cyclone II and Xilinx's Spartan-3 FPGAs.
Figure 1. DSP IP Performance Benchmark Data Comparing Stratix II and Virtex-4 FPGAs
Figure 2. DSP IP Performance Benchmark Data Comparing Cyclone II and Spartan-3 FPGAs
Notes:
- The relative performance for VCS is the average of the three sub-systems in the VCS design
- CFFT design was chosen because it is a common function in typical DSP designs rather than by its popularity statistics on www.opencores.org.
Table 1 shows the benchmark setup and the device speed grade information.
Table 1. Benchmark Setup and Device Speed Grade Information
| FPGA Category |
FPGA Family |
Speed Grade |
Synthesis Tool |
Place-and-Route Tool |
| High-Performance FPGAs |
Altera® Stratix II |
Fastest (-3) |
Synplify Pro 8.0 |
Quartus® II version 5.0 |
| Xilinx Virtex-4 |
Fastest (-12) |
Synplify Pro 8.0 |
ISE 7.1i Service Pack 1 |
| Low-Cost FPGAs |
Altera Cyclone II |
Fastest (-6) |
Synplify Pro 8.0 |
Quartus II version 5.0 |
| Xilinx Spartan-3 |
Fastest (-5) |
Synplify Pro 8.0 |
ISE 7.1i Service Pack 1 |
Table 2 provides detailed information on the DSP open cores used in this performance benchmark. (See more information on performance benchmarking methodology).
Table 2. DSP Open Core Performance Benchmark Core Information
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