Altera Stratix - General Architecture

Altera Corporation 10–1
July 2005
10. Transitioning APEX
Designs to Stratix &
Stratix GX Devices
Introduction
Stratix
®
and Stratix GX devices are Altera’s next-generation, system-on-
a-programmable-chip (SOPC) solution. Stratix and Stratix GX devices
simplify the block-based design methodology and bridge the gap
between system bandwidth requirements and programmable logic
performance.
This chapter highlights the new features in the Stratix and Stratix GX
devices and provides assistance when transitioning designs from
APEX
TM
II or APEX 20K devices to the Stratix or Stratix GX architecture.
You should be familiar with the APEX II or APEX 20K architecture and
available device features before using this chapter. Use this chapter in
conjunction with the Stratix Device Family Data Sheet section of the Stratix
Device Handbook, Volume 1 or the Stratix GX Device Family Data Sheet
section of the Stratix GX Device Handbook, Volume 1.
General
Architecture
Stratix and Stratix GX devices offer many new features and architectural
enhancements. Enhanced logic elements (LEs) and the MultiTrack
TM
interconnect structure offer reduced resource utilization and
considerable design performance improvement. The MultiTrack
interconnect uses DirectDrive
TM
technology to ensure the availability of
deterministic routing resources for any design block, regardless of its
placement within the device.
All architectural changes between Stratix and Stratix GX and APEX II or
APEX 20K devices described in this section do not require any design
changes. However, you must resynthesize your design and recompile in
the Quartus
®
II software to target Stratix and Stratix GX devices.
S52012-3.0