info & market review

Groundbreaking or storm in a teac

Cyclone III FPGA s
Paul Goossens

FPGA manufacturers are engaged in an

intense battle for the favour of electronics
engineers. In the last few years the conflict
has moved from the high-end to the low-
cost users. The newest weapon from Altera in
this struggle is the Cyclone III FPGA. We took
a closer look at the accompanying launch
platform (the so-called starter kit).

A decade or so ago, working with FPGAs was reserved to can omit in the final
a relatively small group of electronics engineers. A typical product the debug-interfac-
application for FPGAs was for them to be used as a proto- es and other test circuitry. It is
type platform for a new chip design. Speed of the internal also worthwhile to optimise the de-
circuitry, size (measured in a vague term as equivalent gate sign for the relevant FPGA. With the con-
count) and large numbers of I/O-connections were high sequence that in such a design an FPGA with
on the wish-list of designers. Nobody worried about such lower ‘logical’ capabilities is still sufficient.
things as power consumption and management didn’t lose
any sleep over the exorbitant high price of each FPGA. It
was, after all, only a prototype and it was still many times Cyclone III
cheaper than the manufacture of a prototype chip. FPGA manufacturers have produced separate series of FP-
GAs to specifically target this group of users. Altera manu-
factures a series of FPGAs which are named ‘Cyclone’,
Mainstream to serve this market. The third generation (designated Cy-
A big shift in the market for FPGAs occurred when manufac- clone III) is now a fact. Compared to the previous genera-
turers produced smaller and cheaper versions. This made tion, the main difference is that the chip is now produced
it attractive to use a small (and cheap) FPGA to replace using 65-nm technology, so that the chip uses even less
all the chips in a device that has only limited production power than the Cyclone II FPGAs. The dimensions of the
numbers. chip are also a little smaller, which contributes to a further
The selection of an FPGA for such a design requires a com- cost saving.
pletely different set of criteria. This wish-list is just about the
opposite of the wish-list from the first group of FPGA users.
To keep costs down, the first requirement is that the chip Starter kit
doesn’t cost much. The power consumption also has to A new generation of chips obviously needs to be accom-
be within limits. It is obvious that the FPGA has to be big panied by a new starter kit. Engineers simply prefer hands-
enough to contain the design. When designing a digit- on experience. A starter kit can also accelerate the de-
al circuit that will ultimately be realised in a FPGA, we sign project considerably, which is, of course, looked upon

66 elektor - 1/2008
up? Important characteristics

starter kit
• Cyclone III EP3C25F324 FPGA
• 256 Mbit DDR SDRAM
• 1 Mbyte SRAM
• 16 Mbyte flash
• 6 push buttons, 4 of which are freely available for use
• 7 LEDs, 4 of which are freely available for use
• 50 MHz oscillator
• High-speed connector
• Built in USB programming interface

Embedded multipliers
FPGAs are normally put to work on ‘number crunching’ ap-
plications for which a typical microcontroller has insufficient
computing power. Examples of this are audio/video proces-
sing, encryption of data and digital radio. The applications
often require several multiplying units (multipliers). You can
create such circuits, just like any other circuits, from the logic
elements in an FPGA.
Because most FPGA designs require several multipliers it
is a logical step to build in a few multipliers on-chip from
the start. Such units have acquired the name ‘embedded
multipliers’.
The advantage of using these ‘embedded multipliers’ is that
they take up much less surface area on the chip compared
to realising a multiplier using the programmable parts of the
FPGA.
In addition these multipliers are also much faster than multi-
pliers that are built from programmable logic.
The multipliers are often a bottleneck in an FPGA design, so
a fast implementation ensures that the computing power of
the FPGA is increased significantly. These FPGA designs also
need much fewer logic blocks, so that the designer can select
a smaller FPGA. This benefits the cost and power consump-
tion of the end product.
favourably by
management!
There exists a low-
cost (i.e. $199) start- High-speed signals
er kit for the Cyclone III A fast sports car cannot do without a decent set of tyres. Like-
series. For this money Al- wise, a fast FPGA cannot function well without fast signals to
tera supplies the electron- and from the outside world.
ics plus a USB cable, power
Fast internal operation serves little purpose when the outside
adapter, CD-ROM and a nice
welcome letter. interface cannot provide sufficient information to be transfer-
The accompanying documentation red to or from the FPGA.
is, as is the custom these days, on the The latest chips in the application areas of digital television,
CD-ROM in the form of PDF files as op- fast A/D converters and modern communication methods in-
posed to a paper version. I personally prefer it creasingly make use of serial communication channels, often
this way, looking after the environment is important, but in the form of differential signal pairs such as LVDS. The DDR
simply being able to search for things is a big advantage. memory also makes use of fast signals.
In addition to the documentation the CD-ROM also contains
FPGAs, even the low-cost types, are therefore provided with
four examples. The actual design software is not on the sup-
plied CD-ROM however. This has to be downloaded from connections that are suitable for sending and receiving these
the manufacturer’s website. How to do this is, of course, high-speed signals. In the case of the Cyclone III FPGAs there
described in the manual. are also a few connections that are suitable for processing
DDR memory signals.
In addition there are connections which are suitable for LVDS
The electronics signals with a speed of no less than 875 megabits per se-
The most important part is obviously the electronics. The cond! This should be sufficient in most cases to satisfy the
leading role is reserved for the FPGA, an EP3C25. This thirst for data...
chip has 25,000 logic gates at its disposal (the exact meth-

1/2008 - elektor 67
info & market review

od of arriving at this number is rather vague and complex der Windows Vista without problems.
however). In any case, you can accept as fact that reason-
ably large digital circuits can be realised with this chip. In
addition this FPGA has an internal 594 kbit memory and Expansions
no fewer than 66 embedded multipliers. In view of the limited number of I/O options it is nice to
There is also no shortage of additional memory on this know that a number of expansion boards are available.
circuit board. What do you think about 256 Mbit of DDR There is a prototype board available (for $ 210!) that con-
SRAM, 1 Mbyte SRAM and 16 Mbyte of flash memory? So sists of a 0.1” prototyping grid and makes all signals from
considering the amount of memory and processing capacity the high speed connector accessible. For $ 230 you can
this board is pretty good. buy a DVI expansion board, which contains both a DVI in-
If you expect that a board with this much potential has a lot put and a DVI output.
of I/O than you will be disappointed however. The manufacturer’s website shows an overview of the cur-
‘Out-of-the-box’ this board contains four LEDs that can be rently available expansion boards.
controlled by the FPGA. The input facility comprises four
pushbuttons. In addition you can also use the JTAG inter-
face to interact with the board. Conclusion
You will look in vain for an audio-codec, video in/out, This starter kit is suitable for people who use FPGAs profes-
LCD or internet connection, for example. Such things are sionally. From a technology perspective the new Cyclone III
likely to be found in products that are typical applications FPGA is certainly a powerful bit of engineering. Together
for these FPGAs. with the generous amount of fast memory this starter kit can
There is fortunately a high-speed connector that can be be used for some powerful applications. There is nothing
used to expand the electronics with additional hardware. wrong with the price, 199 US dollars is not too much.
This special connector is suitable transferring signals at high Unfortunately the built-in I/O is rather spartan. Expanding
speeds without difficulties. You can therefore add your own the cheap starter kit is possible via the high-speed con-
hardware, which could operate, for example, with an LVDS nector. However, the prices of expansion boards are a bit
signal interface. steep, which makes a total cost that compares unfavourably
To round out the electronics, there are also the necessary with, for example, a Cyclone II starter kit.
power supply circuits that provide the various power supply If you intend to develop your own expansion board
voltages for the board. or are prepared to buy one, then this kit is definitely
And, appreciating life’s little conveniences, the board can recommended.
be programmed via a USB connection. This also works un- (070787-I)

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68 elektor - 1/2008