Overview, Introduction, General description – Altera Stratix III Development Board User Manual

Page 5: Chapter 1. overview, Introduction –1 general description –1

May 2013

Altera Corporation

Stratix III 3SL150 Development Board

Reference Manual

1. Overview

Introduction

This document describes the hardware features of the Stratix

III development board,

including detailed pin-out information to enable you to create custom FPGA designs
that interface with all components of the board.

For information about setting the Stratix III development board and using the kit’s
demo software, refer to the

Stratix III Development Kit User Guide

General Description

The Stratix III development board provides a hardware platform for developing and
prototyping low-power, high-performance, and logic-intensive designs. The board
provides a wide range of peripherals and memory interfaces to facilitate the design
and development of Stratix III FPGA designs. Additionally, two high-speed
mezzanine card (HSMC) connectors are available to add additional functionality via a
variety of HSMCs available from both Altera and various partners.

To see a list of the latest available HSMC cards and to request a copy of the HSMC
specification, visit

www.altera.com

Design advancements and innovations, such as Programmable Power Technology
and selectable core voltage, ensure that designs implemented in Stratix III FPGAs
operate faster, but consume less power than previous generation Stratix devices.

For more information about Stratix III device Programmable Power Technology, refer
to the following documents:

■

Stratix III Programmable Power White Paper

■

PowerPlay Power Analysis

chapter in volume 3 of the Quartus II Handbook

With up to 7,280 KByte of enhanced TriMatrix memory and 384 embedded
18 × 18 multipliers, the on-board Stratix III device supplies internal memory while
also providing I/O support for a variety of SDRAM (DDR2 or DDR3) and SRAM
(QDRII or RLDRAM II) interfaces. Both DDR2 and QDRII are available on the
Stratix III development board providing a high bandwidth, high-speed and
low-latency solution.

The Stratix III development board is especially suitable for high-performance,
logic-rich applications that require stringent signal and power integrity solutions. For
example, the wireless, broadcast, and military markets require advanced signal
processing techniques and very low power consumption, while also demanding
flexibility and adaptability in the field.