Lower power consumption and higher bandwidth are now the two dominant requirements in designing next-generation high-end applications. The global trend across multiple markets is for higher bandwidth in the same footprint at the same or lower power and cost. The Internet is going mobile and video is driving bandwidth requirements at a growth rate of 50% year on year. The march to 40G and 100G systems (with 400G on the horizon) is underway to support this ever-growing bandwidth demand. Fierce competition is driving down prices. Space constraints abound, and cooling solutions often dominate the power budget, sometimes up to twice the power consumption of the electronics. The next generation of 28-nm high-end Altera® FPGAs addresses these challenges through leading-edge technological innovation, integration, and reduced power consumption.

Author: Frank Yazbeck, Senior Technical Marketing Staff, High-End FPGAs, Altera Corporation