Altium adds high-performance, low-cost option to its NanoBoard 3000 range

Altera Cyclone III added to NanoBoard 3000 range of FPGA-based development boards

Altium has expanded its range of low cost, rapid prototyping boards with a new NanoBoard 3000 hosting the Altera Cyclone III FPGA.

The new board provides electronics designers with the same hardware, software and ready-to-use, royalty-free IP of the NanoBoard 3000, but with the power of Altera’s low-cost, high power Cyclone III FPGA at its core.

With the board, electronics designers have everything they need to design and deploy sophisticated FPGA-based designs. Complete with hardware and software, the NanoBoard 3000 eliminates the need to search the web for drivers, peripherals or other software. It is a low-risk, low-cost design alternative for electronics designers looking to move beyond the constraints of fixed hardware.

"As we said last September, electronics designers without any prior FPGA skills can use the NanoBoard 3000 to construct sophisticated ‘soft’ processor-based systems inside the FPGA," said Nick Martin, CEO of Altium. "Using their existing board layout skills and Altium’s intuitive graphical interface, electronics designers can construct, test and implement entire FPGA-based embedded systems. This new addition to the range provides the perfect entry point for electronics designers, as it exploits the low-cost, high power benefits of the Altera Cyclone III in an easy-to-use and easy-to-deploy electronics design environment."

 The new NanoBoard 3000AL and NanoBoard 3000XN (hosting the Xilinx Spartan 3 FPGA) cost just €295, including software, hardware and Altium’s royalty-free IP. Electronics designers can also exploit Altium’s vast range of learning materials and reference designs to get them up and running immediately.

Designers looking to deploy their designs can also purchase one of Altium’s modular commercial enclosures. Available in a variety of sizes, the modular commercial enclosures will let designers go from prototype to deployment in a single step by simply snapping the NanoBoard 3000 into the enclosure.   

The NanoBoard 3000 is available for a recommended retail price of €295 and includes a 12-month subscription to an Altium Designer Soft Design License which also includes all software updates released by Altium during the 12-month subscription period. Users of the latest release of Altium Designer can also use the NanoBoard 3000.

Designers can purchase a NanoBoard 3000 from Farnell at: http://uk.farnell.com/altium.