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Altera_Forum's avatar
Altera_Forum
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16 years ago

Please help with device/tool selection

Greetings!

My name is Dave, and I'm an experienced discrete logic designer looking to move to a CPLD or an FPGA. There seems to be no end of options and I'm looking for someone (perhaps an Altera applications someone?) to help with some guidance. Here's what I'm trying to do:

I will have two "medium" speed (13Mbps (thats mega _bits_ per second)) serial data streams incoming, and one outgoing.

The logic solution I'm seeking will be two 64-bit shift registers for the input, and one 64 bit shift register for the output stream. To generate the output bits, a "full adder" will add the two inputs together to generate the output. The logic does not need to be very fast, 13Mbps/64 gives about 5 microseconds to do the addition.

The problem is I'm uncertain in translating the basic 74xx series logic that I'm familiar with into "macrocells", "logic blocks", etc. I know the tools will do this for me. But I'm also wary of committing to a tool/device that might go obsolete soon...so I thought I'd ask.

Finally, the logic is so simple, I'm hesitant to spend a fortune on tools to "make it easy". It's already simple discrete logic, I just need to get it done with less than 500 pins to solder. It needs I/O six signals total...three data and three clocks. Some extra I/O is nice, but not necessary.

Anyone have a suggestion?

2 Replies

  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
    Icon for Honored Contributor rankHonored Contributor
    16 years ago

    the good news is Quartus II Web Edition will do everything you need and is free, so you can try it out and see if things are going to work out for you.

    you can take a look at the MAX II CPLD family. the larger density MAX II devices sound they may meet your needs and don't require external configuration circuitry.

    you should also look at the Cyclone II / III / IV FPGA families. these devices require external configuration circuitry but have much more logic (plus hard multipliers, RAM, PLLs).

    performance shouldn't be an issue with any of the above families. i think the Cyclone II is the oldest device mentioned here, but i don't for see it going obsolete any time soon. if you are very cautious you could look at Cyclone III. you should also connect with your local Altera distributor.