EP1C3T144C8NGA - Cyclone FPGA 2910 LEs 144-LQFP | Intel
MPN: EP1C3T144C8NGA ✓ Active| Qty | Unit Price | Extended |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | $22.5 | $22.50 |
| 10 | $20.4 | $204.00 |
| 100 | $18.1 | $1,810.00 |
| 500 | $15.95 | $7,975.00 |
| 1,000 | $14.2 | $14,200.00 |
Drop-in alternatives for EP1C3T144C8NGA — same package, pin-to-pin compatible. Different-package parts requiring PCB rework are excluded.
Quick Comparison Tool — Select alternative parts for side-by-side comparison:
EP1C3T144C8N
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$14.1 / Unit
View Datasheet →EP1C3T144C8GA
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Contact for price
View Datasheet →EP1C3T144C7N
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$16.2 / Unit
View Datasheet →EP1C3T144C6N
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$11.94 / Unit
View Datasheet →EP1C3T144C8
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$11.2 / Unit
View Datasheet →EP1C3T144C8NGA Maximum Ratings & Electrical Characteristics
| Family | Cyclone |
| Logic Elements | 2,910 |
| Total RAM Bits | 59,904 |
| Maximum User I/O | 104 |
| Number of Logic Array Blocks (LABs) | 291 |
| Embedded 18x18 Multipliers | 13 |
| PLLs | 1 |
| Package | 144-LQFP (T144) |
| Speed Grade | C8 (commercial) |
| Core Voltage | 1.5 V |
| Process Technology | 0.13 µm SRAM |
| Operating Temperature | 0°C to +85°C (commercial) |
| Configuration Method | JTAG / Active Serial (AS) |
| Mounting Type | Surface Mount |
| RoHS Status | Compliant |
EP1C3T144C8NGA Pin Configuration
| Pin 1 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O (bank 1) |
| Pin 2 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O (bank 1) |
| Pin 3 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O (bank 1) |
| Pin 4 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O (bank 1) |
| Pin 5 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O (bank 1) |
| Pin 6 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O (bank 1) |
| Pin 7 | VCCIO1 — I/O bank 1 supply (3.3 V / 2.5 V / 1.8 V) |
| Pin 8 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O (bank 1) |
| Pin 9 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O (bank 1) |
| Pin 10 | GND — Ground |
| Pin 11 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O (bank 1) |
| Pin 12 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O (bank 1) |
| Pin 13 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O (bank 1) |
| Pin 14 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O (bank 1) |
| Pin 15 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O (bank 1) |
| Pin 16 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O (bank 1) |
| Pin 17 | GND — Ground |
| Pin 18 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O (bank 1) |
| Pin 19 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O (bank 1) |
| Pin 20 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O (bank 1) |
| Pin 21 | VCCINT — Core supply (1.5 V) |
| Pin 22 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O (bank 1) |
| Pin 23 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O (bank 1) |
| Pin 24 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O (bank 1) |
| Pin 25 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O (bank 1) |
| Pin 26 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O (bank 1) |
| Pin 27 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O (bank 1) |
| Pin 28 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O (bank 1) |
| Pin 29 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O (bank 1) |
| Pin 30 | GND — Ground |
| Pin 31 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O (bank 1) |
| Pin 32 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O (bank 1) |
| Pin 33 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O (bank 1) |
| Pin 34 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O (bank 1) |
| Pin 35 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O (bank 1) |
| Pin 36 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O (bank 1) |
| Pin 37 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O (bank 1) |
| Pin 38 | VCCIO2 — I/O bank 2 supply (3.3 V / 2.5 V / 1.8 V) |
| Pin 39 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O (bank 2) |
| Pin 40 | GND — Ground |
| Pin 41 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O (bank 2) |
| Pin 42 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O (bank 2) |
| Pin 43 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O (bank 2) |
| Pin 44 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O (bank 2) |
| Pin 45 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O (bank 2) |
| Pin 46 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O (bank 2) |
| Pin 47 | GND — Ground |
| Pin 48 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O (bank 2) |
| Pin 49 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O (bank 2) |
| Pin 50 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O (bank 2) |
| Pin 51 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O (bank 2) |
| Pin 52 | VCCINT — Core supply (1.5 V) |
| Pin 53 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O (bank 2) |
| Pin 54 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O (bank 2) |
| Pin 55 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O (bank 2) |
| Pin 56 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O (bank 2) |
| Pin 57 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O (bank 2) |
| Pin 58 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O (bank 2) |
| Pin 59 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O (bank 2) |
| Pin 60 | GND — Ground |
| Pin 61 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O (bank 2) |
| Pin 62 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O (bank 2) |
| Pin 63 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O (bank 2) |
| Pin 64 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O (bank 2) |
| Pin 65 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O (bank 2) |
| Pin 66 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O (bank 2) |
| Pin 67 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O (bank 2) |
| Pin 68 | VCCIO3 — I/O bank 3 supply (3.3 V / 2.5 V / 1.8 V) |
| Pin 69 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O (bank 3) |
| Pin 70 | GND — Ground |
| Pin 71 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O (bank 3) |
| Pin 72 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O (bank 3) |
| Pin 73 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O (bank 3) |
| Pin 74 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O (bank 3) |
| Pin 75 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O (bank 3) |
| Pin 76 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O (bank 3) |
| Pin 77 | GND — Ground |
| Pin 78 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O (bank 3) |
| Pin 79 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O (bank 3) |
| Pin 80 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O (bank 3) |
| Pin 81 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O (bank 3) |
| Pin 82 | VCCINT — Core supply (1.5 V) |
| Pin 83 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O (bank 3) |
| Pin 84 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O (bank 3) |
| Pin 85 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O (bank 3) |
| Pin 86 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O (bank 3) |
| Pin 87 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O (bank 3) |
| Pin 88 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O (bank 3) |
| Pin 89 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O (bank 3) |
| Pin 90 | GND — Ground |
| Pin 91 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O (bank 3) |
| Pin 92 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O (bank 3) |
| Pin 93 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O (bank 3) |
| Pin 94 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O (bank 3) |
| Pin 95 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O (bank 3) |
| Pin 96 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O (bank 3) |
| Pin 97 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O (bank 3) |
| Pin 98 | VCCIO4 — I/O bank 4 supply (3.3 V / 2.5 V / 1.8 V) |
| Pin 99 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O (bank 4) |
| Pin 100 | GND — Ground |
| Pin 101 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O (bank 4) |
| Pin 102 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O (bank 4) |
| Pin 103 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O (bank 4) |
| Pin 104 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O (bank 4) |
| Pin 105 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O (bank 4) |
| Pin 106 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O (bank 4) |
| Pin 107 | GND — Ground |
| Pin 108 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O (bank 4) |
| Pin 109 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O (bank 4) |
| Pin 110 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O (bank 4) |
| Pin 111 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O (bank 4) |
| Pin 112 | VCCINT — Core supply (1.5 V) |
| Pin 113 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O (bank 4) |
| Pin 114 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O (bank 4) |
| Pin 115 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O (bank 4) |
| Pin 116 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O (bank 4) |
| Pin 117 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O (bank 4) |
| Pin 118 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O (bank 4) |
| Pin 119 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O (bank 4) |
| Pin 120 | GND — Ground |
| Pin 121 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O (bank 4) |
| Pin 122 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O (bank 4) |
| Pin 123 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O (bank 4) |
| Pin 124 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O (bank 4) |
| Pin 125 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O (bank 4) |
| Pin 126 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O (bank 4) |
| Pin 127 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O (bank 4) |
| Pin 128 | VCCIO5 — I/O bank 5 supply (3.3 V / 2.5 V / 1.8 V) |
| Pin 129 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O (bank 5) |
| Pin 130 | GND — Ground |
| Pin 131 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O (bank 5) |
| Pin 132 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O (bank 5) |
| Pin 133 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O (bank 5) |
| Pin 134 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O (bank 5) |
| Pin 135 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O (bank 5) |
| Pin 136 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O (bank 5) |
| Pin 137 | GND — Ground |
| Pin 138 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O (bank 5) |
| Pin 139 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O (bank 5) |
| Pin 140 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O (bank 5) |
| Pin 141 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O (bank 5) |
| Pin 142 | VCCINT — Core supply (1.5 V) |
| Pin 143 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O (bank 5) |
| Pin 144 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O (bank 5) |
Safe Operating Area (SOA) & Thermal Characteristics
No official SOA curve available for this digital IC. Always operate within absolute maximum ratings specified in the datasheet. Ensure adequate cooling and derate as needed.
Typical Applications
EP1C3T144C8NGA is suitable for 6 applications: Industrial Control and Factory Automation, Motor Control and Encoder Feedback, Low-Cost Video Processing Front-End, Communications Bridge and Protocol Converter, Educational FPGA Development Boards, Legacy Glue Logic Replacement and Bus Interface Adapter.
Industrial Control and Factory Automation
The EP1C3T144C8NGA fits industrial control designs because its 2,910 logic elements and 104 user I/Os comfortably handle multi-protocol glue logic (RS-485, CAN, SPI, I2C), encoder feedback, and PWM generation for stepper/servo loops. The 144-LQFP package is friendly to 2-layer industrial PCBs that must remain hand-reworkable. With 1.5 V core and 3.3 V I/O, the part interfaces directly to 5 V-tolerant industrial transceivers via simple resistive dividers. The 1 PLL provides deterministic clock synthesis for deterministic motor commutation timing.
Recommended
Motor Control and Encoder Feedback
For motor-control designs the EP1C3T144C8NGA delivers deterministic latency because FPGA fabric executes PWM and commutation logic in parallel hardware. Its 13 embedded 18×18 multipliers support Clarke/Park transforms and low-bandwidth sensorless observers for BLDC and PMSM motors. The 144-LQFP gives access to 104 I/Os for quadrature encoder, Hall-sensor, and current-sense ADC interfaces. Designers should pair the EP1C3T144C8NGA with external gate drivers (e.g., IR2104) and isolate the JTAG chain for field-upgradeable firmware.
Recommended
Low-Cost Video Processing Front-End
The EP1C3T144C8NGA fits entry-level video bridging (VGA-to-LVDS, NTSC/PAL decoding) because its 59,904 bits of block RAM absorb one or two raster lines and its LVDS-capable I/Os accept 7:1 serialized camera data at up to 640×480. The 2,910 LEs handle color-space conversion and simple overlay logic without external DSP. Designers should leverage Altera's Video and Image Processing (VIP) MegaCore to shorten development. The C8 speed grade comfortably meets 65 MHz pixel clocks required for 720p timings.
Recommended
Communications Bridge and Protocol Converter
Bridge legacy industrial protocols (UART, SPI, I2C, parallel bus) to Ethernet or USB with the EP1C3T144C8NGA, leveraging 2,910 LEs for state-machine logic and 13 hardware multipliers for CRC/encryption offload. The 144-LQFP offers 104 I/Os to support multiple bus interfaces concurrently. Designers can integrate Altera's Triple-Speed Ethernet MegaCore and Nios II soft processor to provide a managed bridge with HTTP/SNMP interfaces. The 1 PLL derives all required clocks from a single 25 MHz crystal.
Recommended
Educational FPGA Development Boards
The EP1C3T144C8NGA is widely adopted in university curricula and training kits because its 144-LQFP package has 0.5 mm pitch pads that remain hand-solderable, allowing students to rework or replace the FPGA in lab. Quartus II Web Edition (free) supports the entire Cyclone I family, and reference designs for counters, UARTs, VGA, and simple RISC-V cores are widely available. The 2,910 LEs are sufficient for complete Altera Nios II soft-processor implementations with peripherals.
Recommended
Legacy Glue Logic Replacement and Bus Interface Adapter
Replace obsolete 74-series TTL or early CPLD designs with the EP1C3T144C8NGA to consolidate address decoding, bus arbitration, and FIFO buffering into a single reprogrammable device. The 59,904 RAM bits implement dual-port FIFOs without external SRAM, and the 13 hardware multipliers handle CRC-16/32 offload for storage interfaces. The C8 commercial speed grade meets 33 MHz PCI and 50 MHz synchronous SRAM timings. Migrating from discrete logic to the EP1C3T144C8NGA reduces board area by 60-70% and simplifies ECO.
Recommended
Recommended Products Summary
Engineering reference data for EP1C3T144C8NGA — comparison, design guidance, and compliance information.
Selection Guide
Comparison with Alternatives
| Parameter | This Product | EP1C3T144C8N | EP1C3T144C8GA | EP1C3T144C7N | EP1C3T144C6N | EP1C3T144C8 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Package | 144-LQFP (T144) | 144-LQFP (T144) - same | 144-LQFP (T144) - same | 144-LQFP (T144) - same | 144-LQFP (T144) - same | 144-LQFP (T144) - same |
| Brand | Intel | Intel | Intel | Intel | Intel | Intel |
| Family | Cyclone | Cyclone | Cyclone | Cyclone | Cyclone | Cyclone |
| Logic Elements | 2,910 | 2,910 | 2,910 | 2,910 | 2,910 | 2,910 |
| Total RAM Bits | 59,904 | 59,904 | 59,904 | 59,904 | 59,904 | 59,904 |
| Speed Grade | C8 | C8 | C8 | C7 (slower) | C6 (slowest) | C8 |
| Shipping Grade Suffix | NGA (lead-free, generic) | N (standard) | GA (lead-free, generic) | N (standard) | N (standard) | no N suffix |
| Configuration Method | JTAG / Active Serial | JTAG / Active Serial | JTAG / Active Serial | JTAG / Active Serial | JTAG / Active Serial | JTAG / Active Serial |
Key Differentiators
- Drop-in same-package alternative at identical speed grade (vs EP1C3T144C8N)
- Lower-cost variant at slower speed grade (vs EP1C3T144C6N)
- Lead-free NGA grade for RoHS / modern compliance (vs EP1C3T144C8)
Design Notes
The EP1C3T144C8NGA requires a 1.5 V core supply (VCCINT) and separate I/O bank supplies (VCCIO1-VCCIO5) which can be 3.3 V, 2.5 V, or 1.8 V depending on the interface standard. Place one 0.1 µF ceramic decoupling capacitor adjacent to every VCCINT and VCCIO pin, and one bulk 47 µF tantalum or aluminum-polymer capacitor near each supply pin cluster. Per the Cyclone Family datasheet, the PLL analog supply (VCCA_PLL) must be filtered with a ferrite bead and decoupled with 10 µF + 0.1 µF. Power-on ramp should be monotonic with a rise time between 100 µs and 100 ms to ensure clean configuration.
The 144-LQFP package has 0.5 mm pitch leads. Use a PCB footprint with 0.30 mm lead width and 1.50 mm lead length per IPC-7351 nominal land pattern. Route all 104 user I/Os on the top layer with via-in-pad escape to inner layers; reserve inner layer 2 as a continuous ground plane directly beneath the device for return-path integrity. Keep configuration signals (nCONFIG, nSTATUS, CONF_DONE, DCLK, DATA0) accessible at a JTAG header. Match clock trace lengths within ±150 mils and use series 33 Ω termination at the source for clocks exceeding 100 MHz.
Common pitfalls: (1) leaving VCCIO of unused banks floating - always tie unused bank VCCIO to a valid rail (typically 3.3 V); (2) omitting the 10 kΩ pull-up on nCONFIG - without it the device may not enter configuration; (3) driving JTAG signals without a buffer when chaining multiple devices - use a 74LVC125 or equivalent to isolate TAP lines; (4) configuring I/O banks at incompatible VCCIO voltages - the Cyclone I datasheet explicitly forbids mixing 5 V with 3.3 V on the same bank; (5) ignoring the I/O bank current limit of 25 mA per pin and 200 mA per bank when assigning high-current outputs.
Compliance Information
NGA suffix denotes lead-free / RoHS-compliant per Altera/Intel Cyclone family product page. Industrial grade (0°C to +85°C). AEC-Q100 automotive qualification not available on Cyclone I family; refer to Cyclone II Auto / Cyclone IV GX Auto for automotive applications.
