Chapter 1: Cyclone III Device Family Overview
1–9
Cyclone III Device Family Architecture
f
For more information, refer to the High-Speed Differential Interfaces in the Cyclone III
Device Family chapter.
Auto-Calibrating External Memory Interfaces
Cyclone III device family supports common memory types such as DDR, DDR2,
SDR SDRAM, and QDRII SRAM. DDR2 SDRAM memory interfaces support data
rates up to 400 Mbps for Cyclone III devices and 333 Mbps for Cyclone III LS devices.
Memory interfaces are supported on all sides of Cyclone III device family. Cyclone III
device family has the OCT, DDR output registers, and 8-to-36-bit programmable DQ
group widths features to enable rapid and robust implementation of different
memory standards.
An auto-calibrating megafunction is available in the Quartus II software for DDR and
QDR memory interface PHYs. This megafunction is optimized to take advantage of
the Cyclone III device family I/O structure, simplify timing closure requirements, and
take advantage of the Cyclone III device family PLL dynamic reconfiguration feature
to calibrate PVT changes.
f
For more information, refer to the External Memory Interfaces in the Cyclone III Device
Family chapter.
Support for Industry-Standard Embedded Processors
To quickly and easily create system-level designs using Cyclone III device family, you
can select among the ×32-bit soft processor cores: Freescale®V1 Coldfire, ARM®
Cortex M1, or Altera Nios® II, along with a library of 50 other IP blocks when using
the system-on-a-programmable-chip (SOPC) Builder tool. SOPC Builder is an Altera
Quartus II design tool that facilitates system-integration of IP blocks in an FPGA
design. The SOPC Builder automatically generates interconnect logic and creates a
testbench to verify functionality, saving valuable design time.
Cyclone III device family expands the peripheral set, memory, I/O, or performance of
legacy embedded processors. Single or multiple Nios II embedded processors are
designed into Cyclone III device family to provide additional co-processing power, or
even replace legacy embedded processors in your system. Using the Cyclone III
device family and Nios II together provide low-cost, high-performance embedded
processing solutions, which in turn allow you to extend the life cycle of your product
and improve time-to-market over standard product solutions.
1
Separate licensing of the Freescale and ARM embedded processors are required.
Hot Socketing and Power-On-Reset
Cyclone III device family features hot socketing (also known as hot plug-in or hot
swap) and power sequencing support without the use of external devices. You can
insert or remove a board populated with one or more Cyclone III device family
during a system operation without causing undesirable effects to the running system
bus or the board that was inserted into the system.
July 2012 Altera Corporation
Cyclone III Device Handbook
Volume 1
ALTERA [ ALTERA CORPORATION ]
