Altera extends temperature range of Stratix III FPGAs for military apps

SAN JOSE, USA: Altera Corp. has extended the temperature range for selected members of its Stratix III FPGA family to support military applications operating in rugged environments.

Offering Stratix III FPGAs with an extended temperature range is part of Altera's enhanced commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) strategy, which ensures military customers have access to the technology and economy of scale advantages provided by commercially available products.

Components used in military applications such as radar, electronic countermeasures and ground-combat communications equipment are required to operate in extreme environments. Selected members of Altera's high-performance Stratix III FPGAs support these applications by enabling operation between -55°C to +125°C.

Altera's military-grade Stratix III FPGAs deliver a core clock performance up to 600 MHz, offer 533-MHz DDR3 DIMM support and feature up to 150K logic elements (LEs), 8 Mbits of embedded memory and up to 896 18x18 embedded multipliers. Stratix III FPGAs also feature Altera's innovative Programmable Power Technology, enabling customers to minimize power consumption and maximize performance in military applications.

"Altera's enhanced COTS strategy strives to meet the DOD's mandate of using commercially available products in military systems that meet their reliability, risk and performance requirements," said Amr El-Ashmawi, senior business unit manager of Altera's military/aerospace business unit. "With our military-grade Stratix III FPGAs, Altera delivers an FPGA solution that specifically addresses the military's size, weight and power constraints while helping keep costs in check."

Altera's Stratix III FPGA family is currently shipping in volume, offering broad support across commercial, industrial and military temperature ranges.