Altera Cyclone III LS -- first low power FPGAs with anti-tamper, design security, design separation

Altera has developed the industry's first low power FPGAs with anti-tamper, design security, and design separation. Extending low-power leadership, these low power FPGAs offer double the resources for less than 0.25W!

The image highlights how Altera is striving to extend its low power leadership with the Cyclone III LS devices.Source: Altera.

The Cyclone III LS devices offer up to 200K LEs for less than 0.25W of static power. It is said to be targeting power- and board-space-sensitive applications in all market segments. "Any market that requires low power and security features will require this product," said Ms Susan Chang, AP marketing manager for Cyclone Series, Altera, underlining the growing importance of low-power FPGAs into power-constrained applications. The devices are shipping to customers now.

A closer look at the Cyclone III LS FPGAs reveals the following:

Low power: 200K LE (logic elements) for under 0.25W; TSMC 60nm low-power (LP) process; and Quartus II software power-aware design flow.

* Information assurance design suite: Offering data protection for information-assurance applications, features include anti-tamper, design security, design separation and IP, design examples, etc.

* High functionality: Featuring densities ranging from 70K to 200K LEs; up to 8.2 Mbits of embedded memory; and up to 396 embedded multipliers.

The Cyclone III LS FPGAs are said to have the most comprehensive IP protection in an FPGA. It protects the IP with anti-tamper and design security. "There is a JTAG port protection to prevent reverse engineering," Chang added.

Security features include CRC to monitor for configuration changes, zeroizing the device if tampering is detected, and an on-chip oscillator that acts as an uninterruptible clock source for system monitoring.

Design separation features include single-chip redundancy and supporting information-assurance applications. This leads to reduction in power and board space, as well as reduction in BOM (bill of materials) cost -- by about 50 percent.

Yet another feature is that of data assurance with design separation. Designers can now create physically isolated partitions with design separation. This protects against time-dependent faults and SEU, and increases the system uptime as well. These enable achieving a higher level of integration on a single device.

Military market and SDR
According to Chang, the military market will be among the most important ones for these devices. Hence, Altera's clear thrust on design security and prevention of reverse engineering!

Focusing on the size, weight, and power (SWaP), these will support next-generation SDR waveforms with small footprint and low power (e.g., MUOS, SRW), night-vision goggles, and secure communications. It features crypto-modernization moving toward standardization.

The Cyclone III LS devices also support existing SDR (software-defined radio) applications. Chang said that SDR is one common design trend in the military market.

The next-generation software-defined radio (SDR) waveforms require more memory and logic for networking in the field and low power for extended battery life. Some other key requirements include small footprint for board space, data security for multiple channels in a single chip, and IP security and anti-tamper.

As far as the next-generation SDRs are concerned, these devices will facilitate reduction of the overall board space by up to 50 percent, an increase in the battery life by up to 2X, besides facilitating a single-chip secure SDR solution.