Cyclone II/III/IV/V?

Question

For an one-off hobby project I want to use a Cyclone (I've used the I in the past), but I can't decide whether to use a Cyclone 2, 3, 4, or even 5.

It's a simple project, just a FPGA with a SDRAM (SDR), video DAC, audio DAC, SD card and a couple of buttons and LEDs. I don't want to use BGA packages so the TQFP144 package it is.

The Altera literature isn't that clear what advantage each newer version brings, other then yet even lower power, more speed and higher density. None of those are especially important for this little project. Apart from the embedded multipliers that are available from the II on, I could just as well use a Cyclone I (which for some reason you need to use a paid license for in Quartus).

I need up to about 10K LEs.

altera_forum · Answer

Then I guess the driver is price.  Over time, Altera drop support for older devices from the web edition.

altera_forum · Answer

Unless you need to fit the FPGA part in a specific instrument design or form factor, you'll most likely want to choose an existing cheap eval board like DE0-Nano or possibly DE0. For a new own design, Cyclone IV should be considered, Cyclone V family is starting from a larger FPGA scale.

altera_forum · Answer

My suggestion is to use the DE-Nano board. At $90.00 on Digikey, this price is very competitive. The parts alone on Digikey would put you in the $150 to $200 range. The Cyclone IV part on this board has 66 embedded multipliers and 38K of 16bit wide RAM available. There are three expansion headers, located on three different edges of the board, for easy access. My thought would be to put your analog and pushbuttons on an expander card and connect via ribbon cable to one of the 2x40 row headers on the DE-Nano. The great thing is that this part is available in TQFP so if you wanted to make your own version of this board you could do a 1:1 compatibility with this part. Best, James

altera_forum · Answer

I have to agree the price of the DE-Nano is unbeatable :) but if I have to make a daughterboard for the video DAC, it's not too much trouble to add the FPGA, SDRAM and powersupply circuit as well. On the other hand, I still have a Cyclone NIOS devkit.

It's more or less a skills demonstrator board, I prefer to have a custom board instead of a two-part solution.

As the price across the series is fairly comparable for a given density, then why not go for the most recent device? So Cyclone IV it is, as I see no real disadvantages either.

altera_forum · Answer

--- Quote Start ---  then why not go for the most recent device?  --- Quote End ---   You'll notice that everyone suggested this.

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Cyclone II/III/IV/V?

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