Which FPGA brand should I use - Xilinx or Altera?

Question

Should I go with Xilinx's Virtex-5 or Altera's Stratix-III?

Answer 1

I've used both vendors parts (although not the exact product lines you mentioned) and I kinda like the Altera stuff (mostly because their development software costs a *bunch* less than Xilinx's)

One word of caution, if you're using fast (150 MHz and up) logic in either family, and it has to be in one of the dense packages (thin PQFP or BGA packages), do a *thorough* dissipation analysis before you get it committed. Even the 1.2 Volt logic runs hot as hell if you have a large percentage of the chip clocking at high data rates.

Whatever else you do, stay away from Atmel programmable logic. I love their microprocessers, but the development software they supply for their FPGA's and CPLD's is just total sh|t.

Good Luck.


Doug