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PLDs Get 65nm Flash Technology Boost

Nov. 19, 2010
PLDs often play second banana to FPGAs. Lattice Semiconductor's MachXO2 PLDs aim to change that view.

65nm MachXO2 PLDs

MachXO2 PLD family

Control dev board

PLDs often play second banana to FPGAs. Lattice Semiconductor's low cost, low density MachXO2 (Fig. 1) PLDs aim to change that view. They are based on Lattice Semiconductor's 65nm flash process technology that provides a 3x increase in logic density, a 10x increase in embedded memory, and a 100X reduction in static power. All this along with a 30% cost reduction versus the original MachXO PLD family. A triple staggered I/O architecture increases the number of i/O pins. BGA packaging reduces footprint size. The chips come in package sizes (Fig. 2) ranging from 2.5mm by 2.5mm to 14mm by 14mm. Power requirements range from 19uW to 230uW depending upon the number of LUTs (lookup tables).

The MachXO2 incorporates hard timer, I2C and SPI interfaces. This can save up to 600 LUTs. The chips also have an on-chip oscillator. Chips are available in low power, 60MHz versions and high performance 150MHz versions. The latter can include an on-chip voltage regulator.

Lattice Semiconductor provides a wide range of IP for the MachXO2. These range from LPC bus controllers to flash and DRAM controllers. There are even display controller interfaces available. An asymmetrical banking scheme maximizes I/O usage while providing multiple interface power supply voltage regions.

Development is handled by Lattice Semiconductor's new Lattice Diamond development tool. It is integrated with Aldec and Synopsis Synplicity synthesis and simulation support.

Pricing starts at $0.75. The high end LCMXO2-1200ZE/HC is priced at $2 and comes in a TQFP100 package.

Lattice Semiconductor development kits for the MachXO2 will include a $99 Pico development board and a $149 Control development board (Fig. 3). The latter incorporates a power supply sequencing, temperature monitoring, fan control and fault logging. It also has a 7:1 LVDS display interace.

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