Replace RFSoC FPGAs with Altera’s Agilex™ 9 Direct RF Medium-band SoC FPGAs

Since 2017, RF integrated FPGAs (such as RFSoC) have offered alternatives for designing high-performance RF systems, offering a compact, integrated solution that merges data converters, programmable logic, and processing cores on a single chip. From 5G base stations to radar and electronic warfare systems, RF FPGAs offer alternatives to building systems using discrete components.

As demands on bandwidth and scalability continue to accelerate, especially in applications like radar signal processing, 6G, edge AI, and real-time spectrum intelligence, RF FPGAs are beginning to show their limitations. Today, engineers are looking for solutions that can handle larger amounts of data while meeting higher performance as well as size, weight, power, and cost (SWaP-C) requirements.

Altera is addressing these market demands with its Agilex™ 9 Direct-RF series of FPGAs and SoCs, which now include recent production shipments of the medium-band SoC FPGA variants. This device integrates medium-band ADCs/DACs, high-performance Agilex FPGA fabric, a quad-core ARM hard processor subsystem, and high-speed SERDES transceivers in a single package, allowing direct digitization and processing of RF data up to the C band. These variants represent a significant step up from traditional RFSoC solutions in both capability and scalability.

Agilex 9 Direct RF medium-band FPGAs offer:

• 19% higher RF frequency range and 25% more ADC channels 1
• 2x the system bandwidth processing capability 1
• Up to 3x more logic and DSP/AI resources 1
• Up to 2x better performance-per-watt 2

These advantages allow Agilex 9 medium-band FPGAs to efficiently process enormous amounts of RF data without needing external components at the edge or on the cloud for offloading compute, a common occurrence in RF systems with large processing needs. External components come with additional overhead due to their associated power supplies, cooling, and chassis equipment. Using the Agilex 9 medium-band FPGA device results in savings in total system cost, footprint, power, and latency, as well as a boost in overall performance.

Some typical use-cases for Agilex 9 Direct RF Medium-band SoC FPGA include

• Phased array radar systems, software-defined radio (SDR) systems
• 5G military and secure communications, satellite communications
• Electronic warfare (EW) and Signal Intelligence (SIGINT)
• Military and spectrum performance test and measurement
• Quantum computing, sensing, and communications
• 6G wireless prototyping and proof-of-concept (POC)

With the shipment of these new device variants, Altera’s Direct RF-Series FPGA portfolio now spans the entire RF frequency spectrum of interest, from medium-band up to wideband, including support all the way through the Ka band.

This expanded coverage allows engineers to tackle a broader range of applications without compromising on performance or flexibility. Whether you're operating in C-band, X-band, or Ka-band, the portfolio delivers unmatched signal integrity, processing power, and efficiency — all within a compact, SWaP-C-optimized form factor.

Altera’s Direct RF-Series Software Toolchain

Altera’s Direct RF-Series FPGA portfolio isn’t just about the cutting-edge hardware; it’s also the software and IP ecosystem that comes with it. Engineers get access to a cockpit analyzer GUI and a robust RF evaluation platform, both of which are deeply integrated in Altera’s Quartus® Prime software suite. This tight integration streamlines initial evaluation to full-scale deployment.

• Contact Altera for access to confidential software and IP details.

Altera’s Direct RF-Series-based Boards

Use these pre-built, pre-verified boards to evaluate FPGA capabilities, begin designing custom solutions, and perform system-level debugging.

• Altera Medium-band Development Kit
  • Kit Ordering P/N: DK-DEV- 3ARF-FD-A
• Altera Wideband Development Kit
  • Kit Ordering P/N: DK-DEV- 1ARF-FA-A 3
  • Kit Ordering P/N: DK-DEV- 2ARF-FA-A 4
• Altera FPGA Commercial-off-the-Shelf (COTS) Solutions
  • Contact Altera Sales to request a copy of this brochure to see hardware (e.g., VPX, SOSA, SoM, etc.) available from Altera Partners based on Direct RF devices.

Altera’s Direct RF solutions result in reduced schedule risk, accelerated time-to-market, and lower total cost of ownership (TCO), all without compromising performance or flexibility.

Whether you're building next-gen wireless systems, high-speed radars, or advanced test equipment, Altera’s Direct RF-Series FPGAs are uniquely positioned to support both medium- and wide-band system designs — with a single, scalable FPGA platform.

Ready to Innovate?

• Visit Altera’s Agilex 9 FPGA Direct RF-Series product page.

Agilex 9 Direct RF medium-band FPGAs and SoCs, development kits, and software are available to order today. For a limited time only, Altera is offering selected customers promotional pricing for the Agilex 9 Direct RF medium-band FPGA development kit, wherein the software is provided for FREE for the first year, and software renewals, if needed, will be provided at a highly discounted price. This promotional pricing will be available for orders placed before June 30th, 2026.

To get started or get access to additional restricted information, request contact with your local Altera sales representative here https://www.altera.com/contact.html.

Footnotes

1. Specification comparison of Altera’s Agilex 9 Direct RF medium-band devices versus Zynq UltraScale RFSoC Gen. 3 (ZU49DR).
2. https://edc.intel.com/content/www/us/en/products/performance/benchmarks/fpga/
3. Dev Kit based upon the AGRW014 device.
4. Dev Kit based upon the AGRW027 device.