Lattice Semiconductor Announces Lowest Cost Design Platform For FPGAs With Configurable SERDES

The Versa Kit empowers mainstream customers to inexpensively evaluate the capabilities of high value design blocks in the award winning LatticeECP3 FPGAs: configurable SERDES, cascadable DSP slices and high-speed DDR3 memory controllers. Customers outgrowing the capabilities of traditional microcontrollers and DSPs will be able to use the Versa kit to develop efficient FPGA solutions to address their emerging high speed design challenges in applications as varied as Video Transmission and Repeaters, Video Image Signal Processing, Camera Controllers, Network Traffic Management and Resilient Network Construction, Solar Panel Controllers and Data Acquisition & Control.



The complete Versa package includes the LatticeECP3 Versa Evaluation Board, seven demonstration systems, 16 free reference designs and an evaluation license for Lattice Diamond™ design software for use with the Versa Kit. The demonstration systems, reference designs and Lattice Diamond software are available for free download from www.latticesemi.com/ecp3versa. The feature rich LatticeECP3 Versa Evaluation Board has both PCI Express 1.1 x1 and dual Gigabit Ethernet interfaces. The onboard SMA connectors showcase the electrical quality of the low jitter LatticeECP3 SERDES and provide an expansion port for external modules such as SFP transceivers.



In addition, Lattice is offering a limited quantity promotion on five comprehensive IP Suites to accelerate customers’ time to market. The suites offer ready-made building blocks for solving a variety of complex design problems, such as high-speed data transfer, Ethernet networking, high speed memory interfaces, digital signal processing and video pixel processing. The five IP Suites normally retail for an annual subscription fee of $995 each. A limited number of IP Suites licenses are available for a promotional first year subscription of only $99 each. So, for less than $200 customers can avail themselves of a feature-rich Versa Kit and an IP Suite targeted for their applications.



“We are pleased to offer our customers the industry’s lowest cost design platform with high end innovations – SERDES, DSP, and DDR3 – for building system, networking and controller applications,” said Shakeel Peera, Director of Silicon/Solutions Marketing at Lattice Semiconductor. “Lattice is committed to providing the outstanding value of LatticeECP3 FPGAs to broader markets with design kits, reference designs, software tools and bundled IP Suites so our customers can accelerate their time to market with new products.”



About the LatticeECP3 Versa Development Kit

The Versa Development Kit is a comprehensive package that includes hardware, software, reference designs and IP that enable customers to develop next generation systems rapidly. The complete Versa package includes:

• A feature rich, low cost LatticeECP3 Versa Evaluation Board, which contains PCI Express 1.1 x1 and Dual Gigabit Ethernet interfaces.

• A variety of demos to illustrate the capabilities of LatticeECP3 FPGAs: PCI Express 1.1 system design demos, Gigabit Ethernet networking demo, high-speed DDR3 memory controller demo and jitter tolerant SERDES Eye demo.

• PCI Express Device drivers for Windows and Linux platforms.

• 16 Free Reference Designs for the LatticeECP3 FPGA Family.

• A Mini USB Cable for FPGA Programming via a PC

• QuickSTART Guide



The latest versions of reference designs, IP cores and Lattice Diamond design software can be downloaded from the Lattice website. For more information about the LatticeECP3 Versa Development Kit, please visit www.latticesemi.com/ecp3versa.



About the Lattice IP Suites

Lattice IP Suites are a family of interoperable LatticeCORE™ IP cores optimized for Lattice device architectures that enable various technology-specific applications. The IPexpress™ tool within the Lattice Diamond Design Environment allows customers to seamlessly access the latest IP cores from the Lattice IP Server and configure them. All Lattice IP cores can be fully evaluated prior to purchase. In the free evaluation mode, customers can fully configure an IP core, integrate it into their designs, perform full verification, and even run it in hardware for a limited time. Purchase of an annual node-locked IP Suite license enables the member IP core to operate in hardware for an unlimited time. The node-locked license can be used on multiple designs or projects over a one year period. For more information about how Lattice IP Suites can bring value to design projects, please visit: www.latticesemi.com/IPSuites.