FPGA Architecture White Paper

Introduction Altera continues to lead the FPGA industry in architectural innovation. The logic fabric and routing architecture in Altera® FPGAs are unmatched, providing customers with a number of advantages. Altera was the first to introduce the 8-input fracturable look-up table (LUT) with the Stratix® II family in 2004. At its core is the adaptive logic module (ALM) with 8 inputs, which can implement a full 6-input LUT (6-LUT) or select 7-input functions. The ALM can also be efficiently partitioned into independent smaller LUTs, providing the performance advantage of larger LUTs and the area efficiency of smaller LUTs. The Stratix series of FPGAs also excels in routing through the MultiTrackTM interconnect, which provides the industry’s best connectivity. As a result, Altera FPGA architecture is at least one generation ahead of the competition, and routing architecture is two generations ahead.