Altera Rolls Out $3 FPGAs

Ships Cyclone IV GX Transceiver Starter Kit
Altera Corporation has stared production shipments of its Cyclone IV FPGAs, providing roughly 20,000 gates (6K logic blocks) for as little as $3 in volume, or 50,000 gates (15K logic blocks) with built in transceivers for $6.
The Cyclone IV FPGAs are designed for cost-sensitive, small  form-factor applications in the wireless, wireline, broadcast, industrial and consumer markets. These devices have a combination of low cost, 25 percent lower power compared to the previous generation of Cyclone products, and high functionality that addresses high-volume, low-cost serial protocol solution needs.
"By offering Cyclone IV GX FPGAs in production shipments up to six months earlier than competing  products, our customers can realize the cost, power and unique board space benefits of these devices," said Luanne Schirrmeister, senior director of component marketing at Altera. "Also, the availability of our Starter Kit gives designers confidence knowing that Cyclone IV GX devices have proven to be interoperable with other PCI Express chip sets."
Customers can begin prototyping with the Cyclone IV GX Transceiver Starter Kit which features an EP4CGX15 FPGA with approximately 15K logic elements, 540 Kbits of RAM and two integrated 2.5Gbit/s transceivers. This lowest cost transceiver starter kit priced at $395 includes all the  hardware, software, design examples and documentation necessary to easily develop an FPGA design for cost-sensitive applications. This kit also allows designers to measure the FPGA's low power consumption, test
the signal quality of the FPGA transceivers, and develop and test PCI Express 1.0 endpoint designs by using Altera's PCI Express hard intellectual property (IP). In addition, the kit can be used with the Quartus(r) II Web Edition design software where no license is required.
The smallest Cyclone IV devices, the EP4CE6 and the EP4CGX15, will start as low as $3 and $6 respectively for 250K unit quantities.

Related articles

• Altera Transitions its 40-nm Arria II GX FPGAs to Production (eon.businesswire.com)
• Altera and Apical Deliver World's First HD Wide Dynamic Range FPGA Solution for Surveillance (eon.businesswire.com)
• Altera's Cyclone III LS FPGAs Garner High Praise from Editorial Community (eon.businesswire.com)
• Altera Unveils Innovations for 28-nm FPGAs (eon.businesswire.com)