In the use of FPGA circuit design, the first thing to do is to select the chip. The chip selection is based on your design requirements to find the device, if you are not sure about the requirements, you can‘t talk about the selection. Requirements may involve the following aspects:

1. Clock speed (logical clock, IO clock, etc.), different families can achieve different speeds;

2. The number of clocks, the clock resources of different families are different;

3. IO number and supported level standards;

4. On-board packaging (welding method, size);

5. Various other hard core functions (PowerPC, MGT, GTP, TEMAC, etc.);

6. Power consumption requirements, by the way, consider the cooling space;

7. Non-volatile requirements, Spartan 3A series have built-in Flash;

8. There is room for product debugging and upgrade expansion, such as using larger devices during debugging, and switching to smaller-scale devices with the same package after completion;

In the end, of course, choose the most cost-effective one that meets all requirements.

Below, the editor will share the selection guide of Xilinx mainstream chips in detail:

1、 Mainstream PLD products

XC9500XL XC9500 Flash process PLD, common models are XC9536, XC9572, XC95144, etc.

The XC9500XL series is still Xilinx‘s main PLD product.

CoolRunner-II: 1.8v low power PLD product,

Comment: The static power consumption is very low, and the performance index is better than the XC9500. It is mainly used in battery-powered systems, and domestic users are not very extensive.

2、 Mainstream FPGA products

Xilinx‘s mainstream FPGAs are divided into two categories, one focuses on low-cost applications, with medium capacity, and its performance can meet general logic design requirements, such as the Spartan series; the other focuses on high-performance applications, with large capacity and performance to meet various For high-end applications, such as the Virtex series, users can choose according to their actual application requirements. In the case where the performance can be satisfied, it is better to choose a low-cost device.

(1) Spartan-3/3L: A new generation of FPGA products, the structure is similar to VirtexII, the world‘s first 90nm process FPGA, 1.2V core, launched in 2003.

Comments: Low cost, not very good overall performance indicators, suitable for low-cost applications. It is Xilinx‘s main product in the low-end FPGA market in the next few years. Currently, low-capacity models on the market are easy to buy. Large capacity is relatively small.

(2) Spartan-3E: Xilinx‘s latest low-cost FPGA, based on Spartan-3/3L, further optimizes performance and cost.

Comments: Low cost, the overall performance index is not very good, suitable for low-cost applications, is the main product of Xilinx in the low-end FPGA market in the next few years, it has just been launched, and many models have not yet been mass-produced.

(3) Spartan-6: A new generation of FPGA, using 45nm process FPGA, 1.0V core. The Spartan-6 inherits the acclaimed Device DNA technology from the Spartan-3. On some models of Spartan-6, the AES encryption technology on Virtex5 has been added to enhance the security.

Spartan-6 LX - Provides the lowest cost, rich logic resources for the needs.

Spartan-6 LXT - Provides the lowest risk and lowest cost, logic-rich, high-speed transceiver for serial connections.

(4) Virtex-4: The latest generation of high-end FPGA products from Xilinx, including three sub-series: LX, SX, FX.

Brief comment: Compared with the previous generation VirtexII, all indicators have been greatly improved, and won the title of the best product in EDN magazine in 2005. It will start mass production at the end of 2005 and will gradually replace VirtexII and VirtexII-Pro. The most important product in the high-end FPGA market.

(5) Virtex-II Virtex-II: launched in 2002, 0.15um process, 1.5v core, large-scale high-end FPGA products.

Brief comment: Xilinx is a relatively successful product, which is widely used in high-end products. It is recommended that users switch to Virtex-4 devices for new designs.

(6) Virtex-II Pro: Based on the structure of VirtexII, FPGA products with internal integrated CPU and high-speed interface.

Brief comment: Xilinx is the first FPGA that integrates powerPC and high-speed transceiver modules. The new design recommends users to switch to Virtex-4FX devices.

3、Xilinx also has many programmable device products that are still widely used, such as: SpartanIIE, SpartanII, Spartan, Virtex E, XV4000 and so on.

CoolRunner (XPLA3) was originally a PLD product of PHILIPS Company and was acquired by Xilinx in 1999. It is characterized by low power consumption and has been replaced by CoolRunner II.

Comment: The industry‘s first low-power PLD, suitable for battery-powered systems, it is recommended to use CoolRunnerII.

4、Other models include:

(1) XCR3256XL, XCR3384, XCR3960

SPartan: Medium-scale SRAM process FPGA, which has been replaced by new products such as SpartanIIE and Spartan3.

Brief comment: Xilinx‘s early low-end FPGA devices.

(2) Spartan-II: 2.5VSRAM process FPGA, upgraded product of SPARTAN.

Comment: Since SpartanII is the only mainstream FPGA in Xilinx that can directly support 5v interface, it is still a good choice for some 5v interface applications.

(3) Spartan-IIE: 1.8v core, medium-scale FPGA, basically the same structure as Virtex-E, is a low-priced version of Virtex-E.

Commentary: Low-cost FPGAs are still widely used

(4) Virtex/Virtex-E: Large-scale SRAM process FPGA, gradually replaced by VirtexII, VirtexII-Pro, Virtex4.

Comment: The most successful FPGA during 1999-2002 has been replaced by FPGA such as VirtexII.

Other models are: XCV812E, XCV405E and so on.

 

To provide convenience for everyone to design circuits, ShenZhen Hao Qi Core Technology Co., Ltd. is an agent of a series of chip resources of commercial and industrial grades for Xilinx chip devices. The specific models are as follows: