Chapter 1: Cyclone III Device Family Overview

1–9

Cyclone III Device Family Architecture

July 2012

Altera Corporation

Cyclone III Device Handbook

Volume 1

Device Family chapter.

Auto-Calibrating External Memory Interfaces

Cyclone III device family supports common memory types such as DDR, DDR2,

SDR SDRAM, and QDRII SRAM. DDR2 SDRAM memory interfaces support data

rates up to 400 Mbps for Cyclone III devices and 333 Mbps for Cyclone III LS devices.

Memory interfaces are supported on all sides of Cyclone III device family. Cyclone III

device family has the OCT, DDR output registers, and 8-to-36-bit programmable DQ

group widths features to enable rapid and robust implementation of different

memory standards.

An auto-calibrating megafunction is available in the Quartus II software for DDR and

QDR memory interface PHYs. This megafunction is optimized to take advantage of

the Cyclone III device family I/O structure, simplify timing closure requirements, and

take advantage of the Cyclone III device family PLL dynamic reconfiguration feature

to calibrate PVT changes.

Family chapter.

Support for Industry-Standard Embedded Processors

To quickly and easily create system-level designs using Cyclone III device family, you

the system-on-a-programmable-chip (SOPC) Builder tool. SOPC Builder is an Altera

Quartus II design tool that facilitates system-integration of IP blocks in an FPGA

design. The SOPC Builder automatically generates interconnect logic and creates a

testbench to verify functionality, saving valuable design time.

Cyclone III device family expands the peripheral set, memory, I/O, or performance of

legacy embedded processors. Single or multiple Nios II embedded processors are

designed into Cyclone III device family to provide additional co-processing power, or

even replace legacy embedded processors in your system. Using the Cyclone III

device family and Nios II together provide low-cost, high-performance embedded

processing solutions, which in turn allow you to extend the life cycle of your product

and improve time-to-market over standard product solutions.

Hot Socketing and Power-On-Reset

Cyclone III device family features hot socketing (also known as hot plug-in or hot

swap) and power sequencing support without the use of external devices. You can

insert or remove a board populated with one or more Cyclone III device family

during a system operation without causing undesirable effects to the running system

bus or the board that was inserted into the system.