PLD Manufacturers

Who makes PLDs?

Despite my very inclusive definition (see that in the popup near the top of the home page), I'll only cover manufacturers of CPLDs, smaller PLDs and FPGAs, keeping away from, at least for now, SoC devices. The information on this page can only serve as a start in making a device/family selection: there is a lot of information not presented, such as the amount of RAM available in the FPGAs. As well, the information can quickly become out of date: to that end I'm tagging each section with the date of update, not just the whole page. One potential source of more detailed information is the site: FPGA-Guide , however it is out of date...the last update was March, 2009 (so many chips, so little time!). Another is EDN's annual PLD directory (the last listed, though is 2004), at . Another site, but it seems to NOT have a directory, is at FPGA Central .

The three main suppliers are Xilinx, Altera and Lattice (often in that order). But, in alphabetical order:

1 Altera

 Updated Nov. 2012.
Altera  has been one of the biggies pretty much from the start. Here's my summary of Altera's many families:
  • CPLDs . Altera's CPLDs are called MAX. There are currently 3 MAX families: MAX II, MAX V and MAX7000.
    • MAX V. The 7 members of this family have from 40 LEs through to 2,210 LEs. All have 8 kiB user Flash.
    • The MAX II family has 4 sizes: 240, 570 1270 and 2210 LEs. As well there are 3 power/voltage variants: G-low power, Z-Zero power (both 1.8 V) and normal (2.5 or 3.3 V). Part numbers start with "EPM".
    • The MAX 3000A family is still available but seems to be near end of life. One of the few around that still has 5 V tolerant inputs. 5 sizes from 600 to 10,000 usable gates.
  • FPGAs  Each of their 3 current lines has older versions, many of which can still be bought. Summaries TBD still.
    • The Stratix line is the most powerful one.
      • Stratix V
      • Stratix IV
      • Stratix III
      • Stratix II
      • Stratix
    • Arria is the name of their mid range architecture.
      • Arria V
      • Arria II
      • Arria
    • And the Cyclones are their low cost/low power chips.
      • Cyclone V
      • Cyclone IV
      • Cyclone III
      • Cyclone II
      • Cyclone

2 Atmel

 Out of date, being edited.
Looking at Atmel s home page would lead you to assume that they do not supply any programmable devices except microcontrollers. They do, however, still offer a selection of PLDs, CPLDs and (possibly) FPGAs, as well as a wide range of configuration memories for FPGAs. Their products encompass the following range:
  • They still supply some traditional PAL devices, even in DIP packages (hooray!). These are the ATF16V8, ATF20V8 and ATF22V10.
  • Their CPLDs are in three series: ATF750, ATF1500 and ATF2500. The largest are in 100 pin TQFPs: there are no BGA packages here.
  • The 0nly FPGA that I could find using their “find it” web page feature was a single member of the AT40 family, an AT40KEL040, which is a rad hard device, so it seems that they have left the FPGA competition to the big three.

3 Integrated Circuit Technology (ICT)

 Out of date!
Integrated Circuit Technology (ICT) are now owned by Anachip  , which in turn was bought (Dec 2005) by Diodes, Inc  . They have always been a manufacturer of small to medium PLDs only. Their chips fall into two categories:
  • The PEEL small PLD replacement line. These range from a 16CV8 to the 22CV10. Using some more internal logic each part can stand in for several of the earlier parts, e.g the PEEL16CV8 can replace about 20 older designs such as the PAL16L8.
  • A proprietary line called PEEL Array (PAxxxx part numbers) which, as the name suggests, is a CPLD composed of smaller PEELs. There are three members in this family, PA7536, PA7540 and PA7572.

4 Lattice

 Updated Nov. 2012.
Lattice  have a wide range of families in both CPLD and FPGA categories, and notably the devices that can be thought of as either: FPGAs that have on-board configuration flash or E2 memory. Their GAL and ispGAL lines have all been discontinued.
  • CPLDs  Lattice list the MachXO, MachXO2 and iCE40 lines under both CPLD and FPGA categorizations: I'm classifying these here under FPGAs only, but distinguishing between volatile and non-volatile families.
    • The only “basic” CPLD line remaining is the ispMACH4000ZE family. The parts run at 1.8 V only, though their I/Os are 3.3 V and 5 V tolerant.
  • FPGAs 
    • Volatile (traditional) FPGAs
      • SC/M. The 5 members of the LatticeSC/M FPGA family are sized from 15k to 115k, LUTs. Packages are all BGAs, up to 1704 balls.
      • ECP3 5 sizes (17k through 149k LUTs) and several speed grades with at least 2 package options (all BGAs-up to 1156 balls) per device.
      • ECP2/M. Old: The 6 members of the LatticeECP2 (2nd generation ECP) FPGA family use a LUT architecture where their predecessor devices the EC and ECP series used what the called PFUs. These are sized from 6k to 68k LUTs. The two smaller members are available in a QFP variant, but all devices are also in BGAs. The 5 members of the ECP2M series, which have added SERDES hardware, have from 19K through 95K LUTs, and are only available in BGAs.
      • The EC and ECP lines have been discontinued, superseded by the ECP2 line.
    • Non Volatile (FLASH-based) FPGAs. The justification for terming these FPGAs, rests, I believe on the fact that they can also be configured from the same sort of data streams that traditional FPGAs can. This means that one does not have to use a JTAG or similar connector that CPLDs generally need for updating the program.
      • The iCE40 family is described as “Ultra Low Density,” and this seems to be a feature! I think somebody needs to tell Lattice that density is defined as the number of 'somethings' per unit area and that much lower density electronics would be achieved, for example, by TTL logic devices, or even better, vacuum tube logic circuits! What's next, ULF  maximum clock frequencies? The iCE40 family is further broken down into the HX (high performance) and LP (low power) series.
      • XP2. old: The LatticeXP (for eXpanded Programmability) family has the same Flash + RAM configuration mamory, making the 5 members non-volatile FPGAs as well. There is much more programmable logic in these compared to the MachXO family, with from 3.1k to 19.7k LUTs.
      • The MachXO family mentioned above is a Non-volatile FPGA. The 4 current members of this family range from 256 to 2280 LUTs. Basically it has Flash memory on-board which holds the configuration when the device is powered down. The configuration is transferred to RAM, and quickly, when the device is powered up.
      • The discontinued ispXPGA family offered on-board E2 configuration memory and had 1,936 to 15,376 LUTs. Some can still be bought.

5 Microsemi, formerly Actel

 Out of date!
Actel . A manufacturer of FPGAs and Processors. Known for their Anti-fuse technology, they also produce a wide variety of Flash-based devices. They have aerospace-rated and automotive FPGA products as well.
  • Their Anti-fuse parts are in 4 families: eX (3,000 to 12,000 gates), MX (3,000 to 54,000 gates), SX (12,000 to 48,000 gates) and Axcelerator (75k to 2M gates).
  • The Flash parts that are on offer are in 3 families: ProASIC3 (30k to 1M gates), ProASICplus (75k to 1M gates) and ProASIC3E (600k to 3M gates);
  • Their Fusion family of mixed signal, Flash-based FPGA plus analog circuitry is an extension of their Flash technology.

6 Xilinx

 Updated Nov. 2012.

Xilinx  has been at the forefront of the FPGA market, more or less, since they invented them in 1985. Their CPLDs, however, largely came from acquisitions, especially the Coolrunner series from Signetics.

  • In the CPLD category, the CoolRunner series is available in two families, but the XPLA3 family seems to be considered legacy now:
    • The CoolRunner-II series, is a a re-design of the XPLA3 family. Such features as multiple interface standards on the I/Os and a built-in clock divider have been added. A PLA, not PAL, architecture is used.
    • The CoolRunner XPLA3 family, in 6 sizes from 32 Macrocells (750 gates) to 512 Macrocells (12k gates). A PLA architecture is used as well. The XPLA3 series has 5 V tolerant I/Os: the -II series can handle up to 3.3 V only.
  • The second CPLD family, the XC9500, currently is represented by only one voltage grade, the XC9500XL (3.3 V) family. There are 4 sizes, 36 through 288 macrocells.
  • FPGAs The latest group of families is represented by the 28 nm 7 Series, which includes, in order of performance, the Artix-7, the Kintex-7 and the Virtex-7 families. The XC3000 through XC5200 families have been largely, if not fully, discontinued.
    • Artix-7 (XC7Axx). There are no earlier Artix families, the Artix-7 is the first. The price range seems to be in the several hundred dollars per chip range.
    • Kintex-7 (XC7Kxx). As with the Artix, the Kintex is a new line. Chip prices can reach the few thousand dollar range.
    • Virtex:
      • Virtex-7 (XC7Vxx). This is the number one in terms of size and speed from Xilinx. Chip prices can go as high as several 10s of thousands of dollars!
      • Virtex-6
      • Virtex-5
      • Virtex-4
      • The Virtex-II, Virtex-II Pro/X and Virtex/E/EM (XCVxx)/(XCVxxE)/(XCV405E & XCV812E) have all been discontinued
    • Spartan:
      • Spartan-7 (XC7Sxx)
      • Spartan-6 (XC6Sxx)
      • Spartan-3 (XC3Sxx)
      • Spartan-3E (XC3ESxx)
      • Spartan-3L (XC3SxxL) low power
      • The Spartan-II (XC2Sxx), Spartan-IIE (XC2SxxE) and Spartan/XL families have all been discontinued.

(Clicking on the “<” at the first entry shows all entries.)

The following companies no longer make PLDs (some don't exist as companies, either). You can find some information about some of them in my PLD History page .