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Altera Europe has started shipping its 28-nm Arria V FPGAs. The devices are the second family to ship from the company’s 28-nm product portfolio following the shipment of its Stratix V family in early 2011. The Arria V devices are the lowest power midrange FPGAs currently available with 10.3125-Gbps transceiver technology.
Offering a range of features designers are able to tailor their low power, high bandwidth, and low cost requirements for a broad range of next-generation systems in the wireless, broadcast and military markets.
The Arria V family is developed on TSMC’s 28-nm Low Power (28LP) process and offers the lowest total power, static power and transceiver power of any midrange FPGA family currently available. The devices consume up to 40% less power compared to previous generation devices. The family delivers 50% lower static power and 50% lower transceiver power than other FPGAs in its class.
Companies like CommScope, a supplier of infrastructure solutions for communications networks, are using the devices to supply next-generation 4G wireless networks.
According to Carmine Pagano, an engineering fellow at CommScope, "The Arria V devices help us deliver 4G wireless infrastructure products with higher bandwidth, greater power efficiency and more cost effectiveness, enabling customers to deliver optimal wireless coverage and quality of service while reducing their overall capital and operating expenses."
“The Arria V architecture, IP and development tools combined with TSMC’s 28LP process enable our customers to achieve an optimised balance of cost, power and performance,” said Patrick Dorsey, senior director of product marketing at Altera. “Our investment in tailoring the family to meet the unique requirements of wireless, broadband and military applications will ensure customers achieve the best performance per watt for their applications.”
The Arria V family is optimised for applications such as remote radio units, in-studio mixers, and 10G/40G linecards. The four family variants—the GX, GT, SX and ST—allow engineers to choose the device that meets their exact needs, with densities up to 503K logic elements (LEs), transceivers that operate up to 10.3125 Gbps, and an optional embedded dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 MPCore processor.
