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Altera_Forum
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8 years ago

Minimal Cost configuration - Cyclone IV

I am working on an upgrade to a product that has been in production for ten years now, using a Cyclone II device. The existing FPGA is sufficient to the task, except it is at "end of life" and they ...
Altera_Forum's avatar
Altera_Forum
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8 years ago

I took your advice and tried a MAX 10 build.

Using a Cyclone IV part I was able to fit the design in a EP4CE15F17C6 part, which is in a 256 pin package, 165 I/O pins. I actually had one entire bank of I/O left over.

Using the MAX 10 family the restriction ended up being the number of I/O pins that would support the DDR2 memory. The smallest / cheapest device that would support a x16 DRAM appears to be the 10M16DCU324I7G

I haven't been able to find an actual package drawing for this part yet but I believe it to be a 15mm x 15mm BGA with 0.8 pad spacing. So it is a higher pin count device in a smaller area.

To use this device pushes the PCB layout into an entirely different arena. Now we are talking additional layers and micro-vias. That just blows the cost savings out the window.

What I was really hoping for was some information on how to do a remote upgrade of the serial prom when using one of the configuration proms made by another company.