At half the cost of competing FPGAs, Cyclone devices are the optimum solution for high-volume, price-sensitive applications that previously required the use of fixed solutions such as gate arrays and standard cells.

Cyclone devices are built on a cost-optimized, all-copper 1.5-V SRAM process, and offer powerful functionality at half the cost of competing FPGA products. With up to 20,060 logic elements (LEs) and 288 Kbits of RAM, Cyclone devices can integrate many complex functions. Cyclone devices offer multiple full-featured phase-locked loops (PLLs) to manage board-level clock networks and dedicated I/O interfaces for interfacing with industry standard external memory devices. Altera's Nios® embedded processor and a full intellectual property (IP) portfolio are available for development with Cyclone devices. You can easily download Altera's no-cost Quartus® II Web Edition software and immediately have all the tools to begin your design for Cyclone devices.

The Cyclone device family is the clear low-cost leader in the FPGA market. With up to four times the density than previous low-cost device families and volume prices at less than $1.50 per 1,000 LEs, Cyclone devices set a new pricing standard for programmable logic. Figure 1 shows the price-per-logic-element trend and the maximum density offerings for Altera's low-cost FPGAs. The combination of a low-cost structure with the abundant device resources in Cyclone devices allows implementation of complete system-on-a-programmable-chip (SOPC) solutions, ideal for high-volume applications.

Figure 1
Pricing & Density Comparison Between Cyclone Devices and Previous Low-Cost FPGAs

Cyclone devices provide a low-cost alternative for the next generation of applications currently using low-to-moderate-density ASICs. Today's system designers face many challenges, including increasing cost pressures and design complexity, emerging standards, and shrinking design cycles. ASIC development involves extensive engineering resources, design simulation and verification, and usually requires multiple re-spins. With its system-level integration capabilities, the Cyclone device family eliminates the costly non-recurring engineering (NRE) charges, minimum ordering quantities (MOQs), and product delay risks that are associated with ASICs. With the Cyclone device family, system designers now have a near-price-parity programmable solution, as compared to ASICs, for their high-volume requirements.

New market trends, such as worldwide standards, platform convergence, interactivity, and improved technology, continue to drive the need for cost-effective solutions. Cyclone FPGAs offer the price points and functionality necessary for customers in markets where innovation is key and being first-to-market determines leadership. The consumer, communications, computer peripheral, industrial, and automotive markets can all benefit from Cyclone device integration in their low-cost, high-volume applications. Table 1 shows a sample of the applications that can use Cyclone devices.

For more detail information of cyclone device family, please vist at the below linked Altera cylone homepage.

Cyclone Home Page

Cyclone Overview Page