If Only The Original Spartans Could Have Thrived On So Little Power

Feb. 27, 2008
Xilinx acknowledges the demands of its power-conscious customers with its latest Spartan-3A FPGAs, which target digital displays, set-top boxes, wireless routers, and other applications where a small footprint and extreme cost sensitivity are

Xilinx acknowledges the demands of its power-conscious customers with its latest Spartan-3A FPGAs, which target digital displays, set-top boxes, wireless routers, and other applications where a small footprint and extreme cost sensitivity are issues.

Dual power-management modes help reduce power consumption, which could spell the elimination of heatsinks and voltage regulators. The devices use up to 40% less static power in suspend mode and up to 99% less in hibernate mode. The suspend mode retains all data states, and the devices may be woken quickly by using a designated multifunction pin.

The company has released four Spartan-3A devices. The XC3S50A and XC3S200A, available in VQ100 packaging, go for less than $1.50 and $3.00, respectively. The XC3S700A and XC3S1400A, available in FT256 packaging, cost less than $6.00 and $9.00, respectively. All pricing is based on 100,000-unit volumes.

The company has also significantly improved the Virtex-5 FPGA family’s power consumption. For more information, see “Reducing FPGA Power Consumption” at www.electronicdesign.com, ED Online 18074.

Xilinx

www.xilinx.com

About the Author

Daniel Harris

Dan Harris is the Digital Technology Editor for Electronic Design. He has a B.S. in Computer Engineering and an M.S. in Engineering Management. His experience includes designing computer hardware for a military contractor, working as an applications engineer for a semiconductor manufacturer making SoCs, and co-founding and working as director of product development for a small firm building EDA software for hardware design.

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