CycloneII, NiosII, StratixII more info please....

[Ken Land]

I wasn't able to attend SOPC World. (really wanted to)

Can anyone share info from Altera's roadmap for these products? I'm working
on a commercial product with the Cyclone and Nios and look forward to even
more of this amazing technology.

Also, a question about the pricing of Stratix I vs. II.

Is the 40% lower price a marketing number or a real number? I mean are they
playing games with equivalent LE's vs. ALUT's or will the roughly equivalent
chips really be 60% of the current price?(what's $200 now will be $120)

I ask because a 40% discount would bring the SII into the price range for
our products, and I'd love to have the DSP features. Or will the Cyclone II
get some of this?

TIA, Ken

 

[Paul Leventis (at home)]

Hi Ken,

Stratix II was announced this week. You can find out all about it at
www.altera.com/stratix2. To answer your questions: The "equivalent LE"
counts are representative of what the typical user will experience moving an
existing Stratix design to Stratix II, as measured on a suite of real user
designs. The ratio is based on an average, and since the logic architecture
has changed significantly, the exact number of Stratix II ALUTs compared to
Stratix LEs will vary somewhat from design to design.

I'd strongly suggest reading the "Stratix II Performance and Logic
Efficiency Analysis" white paper available on our web site
(http://www.altera.com/literature/wp/wpstxiiple.pdf). It gives a (real,
experimentally determined) histogram of relative logic density between
Stratix and Stratix II, plus a lot of useful details on what the ALM can do.

I cannot comment on pricing; I'm an engineer and as such I only understand
numbers that don't have $ in front of them.

As for Cyclone II, Nios II, and MAX II, we have not publicly disclosed much
more than cheaper/faster/better, which you could probably tell from the "II"
in the names. I don't know what was disclosed at SOPC World -- your Altera
rep may be able to fill you in. Please see
http://www.altera.com/corporate/overview/roadmap/ovr-product_roadmap.html
for a description of our 2004 road-map, and stay tuned for announcements
about these exciting products!

Regards,

Paul Leventis
Altera Corp.



"Ken Land" <kland1@neuralog1.com> wrote in message
news:10227rrepmu5vd0@news.supernews.com...

I wasn't able to attend SOPC World. (really wanted to)

Can anyone share info from Altera's roadmap for these products? I'm
working
on a commercial product with the Cyclone and Nios and look forward to even
more of this amazing technology.

Also, a question about the pricing of Stratix I vs. II.

Is the 40% lower price a marketing number or a real number? I mean are
they
playing games with equivalent LE's vs. ALUT's or will the roughly
equivalent
chips really be 60% of the current price?(what's $200 now will be $120)

I ask because a 40% discount would bring the SII into the price range for
our products, and I'd love to have the DSP features. Or will the Cyclone
II
get some of this?

TIA, Ken