Although I have not posted yet to this group, I have an FPGA question.
I am doing an evaluation of the Stratix II and the Virtex 4. Does anyone have any comparisons or experience of the features, performance, etc. of the two devices? I am trying to understand the tradeoffs of the two different platforms.
Tim,
There is no comparison. Seriously. Just go to the websites and compare the features.
V4 - triple oxide, low leakage, no power on surge in the core, faster, over 100 new technical features (like SSIO, DSP48 MAC's, BRAM/FIFO,
256AES, etc.) 4VLX25ES shipping now, development pcbs order entry open and shipping ...Stratix II - ... (I'll let them play marketing)
Aust> Although I have not posted yet to this group, I have an FPGA question.
Seriously... when are you planning to build? or are you after a one off... If its not been in the market a year its not worth trying to buy them yet! Only those in beta and those ordering thousands have any likelihood of seeing any. So its not what features they have got... but what features that you need that's important. We still use Spartan 2E's at work... why go to Spartan 3 or vertex if you don't need them ???
Simon
I suggest getting both the libraries and running an apples-apples comparison on one of your designs. I found with Stratix and V2 Pro that our designs produced similar results - one came out a little smaller and one a little faster honestly I can't remember which.
It turned out for us that since the results were similar enough, price was the deciding factor.
Chris
While I assume the silicon to be similar, I expect the tradeoff to be in the development tools.
Both have free web versions. For the reason of a colleague showing me Altera tools, I'm stuck with them and I didn't have the two weeks to have a look at the others.
A comparing report about the tools would be appreciated.
Rene
-- Ing.Buero R.Tschaggelar - http://www.ibrtses.com & commercial newsgroups - http://www.talkto.net
This sounds interesting; I didn't notice it on the Xilinx site... do you have a link with more information?
- a
you could try this article
He's correct, there is no comparison. Xilinx once again makes a huge leap in technology. It's a slam dunk. V4 blows Stratix II out of the water in every regard.
One reason to use a newer part vs. an older part is that they typically cost less per LUT. The Spartan 3 is much cheaper than a Spartan II or IIE. The Cyclone II is much cheaper than the Cyclone (I) or the ACEX parts. Of course it is not a good idea to use a part that you can't get. But you should be able to get Spartan 3 parts by now and from what I have seen Altera has not had the same availability problems that Xilinx always seems to have on new parts.
-- Rick "rickman" Collins rick.collins@XYarius.com Ignore the reply address. To email me use the above address with the XY removed. Arius - A Signal Processing Solutions Company Specializing in DSP and FPGA design URL http://www.arius.com 4 King Ave 301-682-7772 Voice Frederick, MD 21701-3110 301-682-7666 FAX
yes and no... older parts can be cheaper..... we are paying about $12 for our parts... and Spartan 3 maybe cheaper per LUT... but when you don't need as many as are available.. you are paying for a lot of unused silicon... and the extra regulator of course... :-)
off...
yet!
why go
Adam,
details what we used to do, vs. what we do now.
Also look in section 3 of any datasheet for the Iccint, Iccaux, and Icco current requirements. As of V2, we require that the current provided be at least the quiescent current needed, and no more than that.
Aust> Aust>
Why would you be paying for unused silicon? Is your design a lot smaller than the smallest S3 part, the XC3S50? If so, then I guess a newer part won't do you any good.
-- Rick "rickman" Collins rick.collins@XYarius.com Ignore the reply address. To email me use the above address with the XY removed. Arius - A Signal Processing Solutions Company Specializing in DSP and FPGA design URL http://www.arius.com 4 King Ave 301-682-7772 Voice Frederick, MD 21701-3110 301-682-7666 FAX
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