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Altera_Forum's avatar
Altera_Forum
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13 years ago

Drastic difference in Fmax on Cyclone and Stratix

Hi,

I am trying to replicate a multiported RAM design on Cyclone IV which was done by the author using Stratix III . When I compare the Fmax of the designs there is a drastic reduction. The design that had a Fmax at around 370MHz on Stratix has a Fmax of 127MHz!! Why is there such a difference??

The difference in Fmax can also be seen in this document which compares performance of NiosII benchmarks - http://www.altera.com/literature/ds/ds_nios2_perf.pdf

If anyone knows the reason for this kindly let me know.

Thanks.

2 Replies

  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    Stratix is the high end FPGA family, they are a lot faster than the Cyclones, and cost also a lot more.

  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    If you look at the Altera Web site you will see that Cyclone IV has speed grades -7 and -8 but Stratix has -3 and -4. The smaller the value the quicker the device.