Altera and TI make RF design fast and easy with complete development kit for Arria V FPGAs

Kit reduces the time needed to design and verify RF systems from months to weeks

MONTREAL, June 18, 2012  -- Today at the International Microwave Symposium, Altera Corporation and Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI)  introduced a complete RF development kit that eases RF prototyping for systems based on Altera's 28-nm Arria® V FPGAs. The modular Arria V FPGA RF Development Kit includes all the hardware and software needed for RF transmit, receive and digital pre-distortion feedback, reducing the amount of time needed to design and verify RF systems, such as wireless base stations, remote radio heads, and military radio and intelligence equipment, from months to weeks. For more information, visit www.ti.com/arria-v-devkit-pr .

The Arria V FPGA RF Development Kit provides RF developers with access to the latest generation of 28-nm FPGAs from Altera, along with the newest analog-to-digital converters (ADCs), digital-to-analog converters (DACs) and clocks from TI. The kit provides 2.5 times more transmit and digital pre-distortion feedback bandwidth than similar solutions and is the industry's first complete main/diversity receive development platform supporting up to 75 MHz of bandwidth.

Features and benefits of the Arria V FPGA RF Development Kit:

• 28-nm Arria V FPGA, balancing cost and performance while delivering the lowest total power for wireless applications.
• Up to 500 MHz of transmit and feedback bandwidth, enabling 100 MHz of transmit bandwidth with fifth order pre-distortion correction.
• Up to 75 MHz of main/diversity receive bandwidth with 14-bit resolution and 31.5 dB of gain range for demanding multi-carrier 3G and 4G standards.
• Low phase-noise-fractional phase-locked loop (PLL) / voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) to provide local oscillator for transmit, receive and feedback mixers and modulators.
• Modular design enables alternative and future evaluation modules (EVMs) to be incorporated quickly and seamlessly.

The Arria V FPGA RF Development Kit includes the Arria V FPGA Development Board and the following RF components from TI:

• TSW30H84EVM, a complete RF transmit reference design including the DAC34H84, the industry's lowest-power 4-channel, 16-bit DAC at 1.25 GSPS.
• TSW1266EVM, a digital pre-distortion feedback reference design.
• TSW1265EVM, a wideband dual-receiver reference design, which includes the ADS4249, the industry's lowest-power dual, 14-bit ADC.
• TSW3065EVM, a standalone local oscillator source designed with the TRF3765 integer and fractional PLL/VCO.
• HSMC-ADC-Bridge and ArriaV-TI-Adapter to interface between TI and Altera hardware.

Availability and pricing

The Arria V FPGA RF Development Kit can be ordered today from Arrow Electronics for US$6,299.

Learn more about communications solutions from TI and Altera by visiting the links below:

Get additional details on the kit: www.ti.com/arria-v-devkit-pr .

See more TI analog solutions for Altera FPGAs: www.ti.com/altera-fpga-pr .

Check out other wireless RF solutions from TI: www.ti.com/wireless-rf-pr .

Learn more about Arria V FPGAs: www.altera.com/arriav .

Follow what TI signal chain experts have to say on our E2E blog: www.ti.com/analogwire-pr .

About Texas Instruments

Texas Instruments semiconductor innovations help 90,000 customers unlock the possibilities of the world as it could be - smarter, safer, greener, healthier and more fun. Our commitment to building a better future is ingrained in everything we do - from the responsible manufacturing of our semiconductors, to caring for our employees, to giving back inside our communities. This is just the beginning of our story. Learn more at www.ti.com .

About Altera

Altera® programmable solutions enable system and semiconductor companies to rapidly and cost-effectively innovate, differentiate and win in their markets. Find out more about Altera's FPGA, CPLD and ASIC devices at www.altera.com .