Why is Spartan-3 more expensive than Cyclone?

Hi everyone,

I compared the prices of two FPGAs from Digikey
(http://www.digikey.com):
+) Xilinx Spartan-3, XC3S1000 - 4FTG256C with LC:1920, I/O pins:173.
Price:  47.87$

+) Altera Cyclone, EP1C6Q240C8N - ND with LC:5980, I/O pins:185.
Price: 18.9$

Im relativly new to the FPGA world, but given the larger numbers of
LC's and I/O pins that cyclone has, I don't understand why spartan-3 is
more expensive? Is there another parameter that I am missing here? Note
that I don't find these huge price differences only in Digikey.

JJ

jid...@hotmail.com wrote:
> Hi everyone,
>
> I compared the prices of two FPGAs from Digikey
> (http://www.digikey.com):
> +) Xilinx Spartan-3, XC3S1000 - 4FTG256C with LC:1920, I/O pins:173.
> Price:  47.87$
>
> +) Altera Cyclone, EP1C6Q240C8N - ND with LC:5980, I/O pins:185.
> Price: 18.9$
>
> Im relativly new to the FPGA world, but given the larger numbers of
> LC's and I/O pins that cyclone has, I don't understand why spartan-3 is
> more expensive? Is there another parameter that I am missing here? Note
> that I don't find these huge price differences only in Digikey.

Possibly because you are comparing two very different sized parts in
two very different packages.

The EP1C6 is in a 240 pin QFP (read lower cost package) with about 6000
LEs.  The XC3S1000 is a newer technology which should be cheaper, but
you picked a BGA package (which tends to cost more than QFPs) and a
*much* larger part.  The XC3S1000 has 1920 CLBs with 8 LCs each or
15,360 (compared to the 17,280 claimed by the data sheet).  I think the
XC3S400 would be a better comparison with about 7,168 LCs.

I suggest that you compare the Cyclone II and pick an equivalent part.
How about the EP2C20F256C8 with 18,752 LCs in the same 256 pin BGA at
$42.70...?  Now it is only a bit cheaper.

jidan1@hotmail.com wrote:
> Hi everyone,
>
> I compared the prices of two FPGAs from Digikey
> (http://www.digikey.com):
> +) Xilinx Spartan-3, XC3S1000 - 4FTG256C with LC:1920, I/O pins:173.
> Price:  47.87$
>
> +) Altera Cyclone, EP1C6Q240C8N - ND with LC:5980, I/O pins:185.
> Price: 18.9$
>
> Im relativly new to the FPGA world, but given the larger numbers of
> LC's and I/O pins that cyclone has, I don't understand why spartan-3 is
> more expensive? Is there another parameter that I am missing here? Note
> that I don't find these huge price differences only in Digikey.
>
> JJ
the price difference would be mainly due to the difference in logic
density. the Xilinx XC3S1000 has more LUTs (4-input Look Up Tables)
than the Altera EP1C6. if price is a concern, you might consider
Lattice's low cost FPGA, the LatticeEC

Vendor    Device          LUTs         1pc. Price
--------   -----------    ---------     ----------
Xilinx     XC3S1000       15K          ~$50.00
Altera     EP1C6          6K           ~$19.00
Lattice    LFEC6          6K           ~$18.00
Lattice    LFEC15         15K          ~$36.00

http://www.latticesemi.com/products/fpga/index.cfm
hope this helps.
rgds,
bart, lattice

bart wrote:
> jidan1@hotmail.com wrote:
> > Hi everyone,
> >
> > I compared the prices of two FPGAs from Digikey
> > (http://www.digikey.com):
> > +) Xilinx Spartan-3, XC3S1000 - 4FTG256C with LC:1920, I/O pins:173.
> > Price:  47.87$
> >
> > +) Altera Cyclone, EP1C6Q240C8N - ND with LC:5980, I/O pins:185.
> > Price: 18.9$
> >
> > Im relativly new to the FPGA world, but given the larger numbers of
> > LC's and I/O pins that cyclone has, I don't understand why spartan-3 is
> > more expensive? Is there another parameter that I am missing here? Note
> > that I don't find these huge price differences only in Digikey.
> >
> > JJ
> the price difference would be mainly due to the difference in logic
> density. the Xilinx XC3S1000 has more LUTs (4-input Look Up Tables)
> than the Altera EP1C6. if price is a concern, you might consider
> Lattice's low cost FPGA, the LatticeEC
>
> Vendor    Device          LUTs         1pc. Price
> --------   -----------    ---------     ----------
> Xilinx     XC3S1000       15K          ~$50.00
> Altera     EP1C6          6K           ~$19.00
> Lattice    LFEC6          6K           ~$18.00
> Lattice    LFEC15         15K          ~$36.00
>
> http://www.latticesemi.com/products/fpga/index.cfm
> hope this helps.
> rgds,
> bart, lattice

What about the LFE2 parts?  I thought they were starting to ship now
and even cheaper.

rickman wrote:

> What about the LFE2 parts?  I thought they were starting to ship now
> and even cheaper.

the original question referred to distributors such as Digikey, so at
the 6K and 15K LUT densities, the 130nm LatticeEC is the best fit for
devices that are available from Mouser and other specialized
distributors off the shelf.

you're right, the 90nm LatticeECP2 device is now sampling and is lower
priced, however the smaller densities (6K-15KLUT) of the LatticeECP2
are not currently available through distributors such as Mouser.
http://www.mouser.com/latticesemi/

bart wrote:
> density. the Xilinx XC3S1000 has more LUTs (4-input Look Up Tables)
> than the Altera EP1C6.

... while the Cyclone II also has 4 inputs per LUT AFAIR