EP1C3T100A8N

EP1C3T100A8N Low-Cost Cyclone I FPGA by Intel/Altera

The EP1C3T100A8N is a cost-optimized Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) from Intel's Cyclone I family, originally developed by Altera before its 2015 acquisition. Fabricated on a 130 nm CMOS process, this device delivers 2,910 logic elements organized across 291 Logic Array Blocks (LABs), making it ideal for budget-sensitive digital designs requiring moderate logic density. Housed in a 100-pin Thin Quad Flat Package (TQFP-100) measuring 14 mm x 14 mm with 0.5 mm pitch, the chip targets applications where board space and unit cost matter more than raw performance. The device supports commercial temperature range (0°C to +85°C) and industrial extended variants (EP1C3T100I8N) reach -40°C to +100°C for harsher conditions.

The FPGA integrates 59,904 bits of embedded RAM distributed across dedicated M4K memory blocks, providing ample on-chip storage for FIFOs, lookup tables, and data buffering without external memory overhead. It exposes 65 user-configurable I/O pins supporting multiple voltage standards including LVTTL, LVCMOS, SSTL-2, and PCI, enabling direct interfacing with sensors, memory controllers, and communication peripherals. Clock management is handled by up to 4 Phase-Locked Loops (PLLs), allowing frequency synthesis, phase shifting, and clock domain crossing within a single device. Configuration is loaded via JTAG or Active Serial (AS) mode, with the Quartus II design suite providing full VHDL and Verilog support. The chip also features a dedicated configuration controller and user flash memory interface for in-system reconfiguration. Despite its modest logic count, the Cyclone I architecture delivers efficient resource utilization, with each LAB containing 10 logic elements, a local interconnect, and carry chain logic optimized for arithmetic operations.

Alternative FPGAs

● XC3S500E-4FG320C (AMD Xilinx) — A Spartan-3E FPGA offering 4,608 slices and 187 Kbit of block RAM in a 320-pin BGA, serving as a higher-density upgrade for Cyclone I designs needing more logic and memory.

● GW1N-1-QN88C (Gowin Semiconductor) — A 1K-LUT low-power FPGA in an 88-pin QFN package with on-chip SRAM and DSP support, ideal as a pin-compatible, cost-effective replacement for simple Cyclone I control applications.

● EG4S20BG256 (EG Altera/EVERSPIN) — A 20K-gate FPGA from EG with 256 Kbit of SRAM in a 256-pin BGA, delivering significantly higher logic capacity at a competitive price point for industrial gateway applications.