FPGA serial I/O hits 11.3 Gbps
By Graham Prophet, Europe Editor -- EDN, April 9, 2009
In the latest additions to its Stratix range of FPGAs, Altera has incorporated serial-data transceivers that support signal rates as high as 11.3 Gbps. The company envisages the Stratix IV GT’s parts finding applications in 40- or 100-Gbps systems.
You might use a link at the maximum speed to directly connect an optical receiver or transmitter to the FPGA. At these speeds, signals propagate over a few centimeters at most; nevertheless, Altera says that, with appropriate design, PCB (printed-circuit-board) designs on FR (fire-retardant)-4 material should be viable.
The GT parts will have 24 transceivers that will run at the highest speed, and 24 support 6.5 Gbps. They have 230,000 to 530,000 logic elements, 13.9 to 20.3 Mbits of internal RAM, and as many as 1288 18×18-bit multipliers.
Altera has also added the Arria II GX family of 3.75-Gbps-capable chips with 16,000 to 256,000 logic elements and four to 16 transceivers. A new suite of reference designs and design examples use these new parts. The latest version of the company’s Quartus software supports both series.
The price for the smallest Arria II GX device is $15 (100,000).
