EP1C6TC144-8 - Cyclone FPGA, 5980 LEs, 144-TQFP | Intel
MPN: EP1C6TC144-8 ✗ End of Life| Qty | Unit Price | Extended |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | $44.81 | $44.81 |
| 10 | $38.5 | $385.00 |
| 100 | $30.2 | $3,020.00 |
| 500 | $26.4 | $13,200.00 |
| 1,000 | $23.07 | $23,070.00 |
Drop-in alternatives for EP1C6TC144-8 — 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:
EP1C6T144C8
✅ Drop-In✓ In Stock
$15.6 / Unit
View Datasheet →EP1C6T144C8N
✅ Drop-In✓ In Stock
$12.95 / Unit
View Datasheet →EP1C6T144C7
✅ Drop-In✓ In Stock
$19.85 / Unit
View Datasheet →EP1C6T144C7N
✅ Drop-In✓ In Stock
$18.4 / Unit
View Datasheet →EP1C6T144C6N
✅ Drop-In✓ In Stock
$18.85 / Unit
View Datasheet →EP1C6TC144-8 Maximum Ratings & Electrical Characteristics
| Family | Cyclone |
| Logic Elements | 5,980 |
| Embedded Memory | 92,160 bits (20 M4K blocks of 4,608 bits each) |
| Maximum User I/O | 185 (package-dependent) |
| User I/O (this package) | 92 (144-TQFP) |
| PLLs | 2 |
| Global Clock Networks | 8 |
| Core Voltage (VCCINT) | 1.5 V |
| I/O Voltage (VCCIO) | 1.5 V / 1.8 V / 2.5 V / 3.3 V (bank-dependent) |
| Speed Grade | -8 (8 ns pin-to-pin delay, commercial) |
| Operating Temperature | 0 C to +85 C (commercial) |
| Process Technology | 130 nm SRAM |
| Configuration Modes | AS / PS / JTAG |
| Embedded Multipliers | Support for 18x18 multiplication |
| Package | 144-pin TQFP (TQFP-144) |
| Mounting Type | Surface Mount |
| Lead-Free / RoHS | Lead-free; RoHS compliance status varies by date code - confirm with supplier |
EP1C6TC144-8 Pin Configuration
| Pin 1 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O pin (bank dependent) |
| Pin 2 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O pin |
| Pin 3 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O pin |
| Pin 4 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O pin |
| Pin 5 | VCCINT — Core voltage supply, 1.5 V |
| Pin 6 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O pin |
| Pin 7 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O pin |
| Pin 8 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O pin |
| Pin 9 | GND — Ground |
| Pin 10 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O pin |
| Pin 11 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O pin |
| Pin 12 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O pin |
| Pin 13 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O pin |
| Pin 14 | TMS — JTAG test mode select |
| Pin 15 | TCK — JTAG test clock |
| Pin 16 | TDO — JTAG test data out |
| Pin 17 | TDI — JTAG test data in |
| Pin 18 | nCONFIG — Configuration control (active low) |
| Pin 19 | nSTATUS — Configuration status (active low) |
| Pin 20 | CONF_DONE — Configuration done indicator |
| Pin 21 | DCLK — Configuration clock |
| Pin 22 | DATA0 — Configuration data input |
| Pin 23 | VCCIO1 — I/O bank 1 voltage supply |
| Pin 24 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O pin |
| Pin 25 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O pin |
| Pin 26 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O pin |
| Pin 27 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O pin |
| Pin 28 | GND — Ground |
| Pin 29 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O pin |
| Pin 30 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O pin |
| Pin 31 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O pin |
| Pin 32 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O pin |
| Pin 33 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O pin |
| Pin 34 | VCCIO2 — I/O bank 2 voltage supply |
| Pin 35 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O pin |
| Pin 36 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O pin |
| Pin 37 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O pin |
| Pin 38 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O pin |
| Pin 39 | GND — Ground |
| Pin 40 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O pin |
| Pin 41 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O pin |
| Pin 42 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O pin |
| Pin 43 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O pin |
| Pin 44 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O pin |
| Pin 45 | VCCIO3 — I/O bank 3 voltage supply |
| Pin 46 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O pin |
| Pin 47 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O pin |
| Pin 48 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O pin |
| Pin 49 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O pin |
| Pin 50 | GND — Ground |
| Pin 51 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O pin |
| Pin 52 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O pin |
| Pin 53 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O pin |
| Pin 54 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O pin |
| Pin 55 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O pin |
| Pin 56 | VCCIO4 — I/O bank 4 voltage supply |
| Pin 57 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O pin |
| Pin 58 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O pin |
| Pin 59 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O pin |
| Pin 60 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O pin |
| Pin 61 | GND — Ground |
| Pin 62 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O pin |
| Pin 63 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O pin |
| Pin 64 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O pin |
| Pin 65 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O pin |
| Pin 66 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O pin |
| Pin 67 | VCCINT — Core voltage supply, 1.5 V |
| Pin 68 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O pin |
| Pin 69 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O pin |
| Pin 70 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O pin |
| Pin 71 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O pin |
| Pin 72 | GND — Ground |
| Pin 73 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O pin |
| Pin 74 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O pin |
| Pin 75 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O pin |
| Pin 76 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O pin |
| Pin 77 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O pin |
| Pin 78 | VCCIO5 — I/O bank 5 voltage supply |
| Pin 79 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O pin |
| Pin 80 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O pin |
| Pin 81 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O pin |
| Pin 82 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O pin |
| Pin 83 | GND — Ground |
| Pin 84 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O pin |
| Pin 85 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O pin |
| Pin 86 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O pin |
| Pin 87 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O pin |
| Pin 88 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O pin |
| Pin 89 | VCCIO6 — I/O bank 6 voltage supply |
| Pin 90 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O pin |
| Pin 91 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O pin |
| Pin 92 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O pin |
| Pin 93 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O pin |
| Pin 94 | GND — Ground |
| Pin 95 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O pin |
| Pin 96 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O pin |
| Pin 97 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O pin |
| Pin 98 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O pin |
| Pin 99 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O pin |
| Pin 100 | VCCIO7 — I/O bank 7 voltage supply |
| Pin 101 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O pin |
| Pin 102 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O pin |
| Pin 103 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O pin |
| Pin 104 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O pin |
| Pin 105 | GND — Ground |
| Pin 106 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O pin |
| Pin 107 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O pin |
| Pin 108 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O pin |
| Pin 109 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O pin |
| Pin 110 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O pin |
| Pin 111 | VCCIO8 — I/O bank 8 voltage supply |
| Pin 112 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O pin |
| Pin 113 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O pin |
| Pin 114 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O pin |
| Pin 115 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O pin |
| Pin 116 | GND — Ground |
| Pin 117 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O pin |
| Pin 118 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O pin |
| Pin 119 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O pin |
| Pin 120 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O pin |
| Pin 121 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O pin |
| Pin 122 | VCCINT — Core voltage supply, 1.5 V |
| Pin 123 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O pin |
| Pin 124 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O pin |
| Pin 125 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O pin |
| Pin 126 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O pin |
| Pin 127 | GND — Ground |
| Pin 128 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O pin |
| Pin 129 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O pin |
| Pin 130 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O pin |
| Pin 131 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O pin |
| Pin 132 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O pin |
| Pin 133 | CLK0 — Dedicated clock input 0 |
| Pin 134 | CLK1 — Dedicated clock input 1 |
| Pin 135 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O pin |
| Pin 136 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O pin |
| Pin 137 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O pin |
| Pin 138 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O pin |
| Pin 139 | GND — Ground |
| Pin 140 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O pin |
| Pin 141 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O pin |
| Pin 142 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O pin |
| Pin 143 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O pin |
| Pin 144 | I/O — General-purpose user I/O pin |
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
EP1C6TC144-8 is suitable for 6 applications: Industrial Motor Control, Consumer Video Processing, Communications Protocol Bridging, Low-Cost DSP Implementation, PCI Bus Interface Card, Legacy Design Continuity.
Industrial Motor Control
The EP1C6TC144-8 is well-suited for industrial motor control and drive signal generation. With 5,980 logic elements and 92 user I/Os in the 144-TQFP, the device can host multiple PWM channels, encoder interfaces, and field-oriented control (FOC) state machines while leaving headroom for serial protocol stacks such as RS-485 Modbus. The 92,160 bits of embedded M4K memory provide line buffers for current-loop sampling at typical 10 kHz rates. Designers appreciate the through-hole-friendly TQFP package, which simplifies prototype bring-up on 4-layer FR-4 boards used in motor drive PCBs. The -8 commercial speed grade is adequate for switching frequencies up to 100 kHz with proper pipeline scheduling. Estimated: 5,980 LEs at 50% utilization at 50 MHz toggle rate yields roughly 200-300 mW core power at 1.5 V.
Recommended
Consumer Video Processing
Consumer video processing applications benefit from the EP1C6TC144-8's M4K memory blocks and PLL flexibility. The 92,160 bits of RAM support line buffers for video scaling, color-space conversion, and deinterlacing algorithms at standard-definition resolutions. Two PLLs provide independent clock generation for video pixel clocks and back-channel processing, eliminating the need for external clock generators on the PCB. The 144-TQFP package exposes 92 user I/Os, sufficient for 24-bit RGB buses, ITU-R BT.656 interfaces, and I2C control paths. The Cyclone architecture's 18x18 multiplier blocks can perform small filter taps for sharpening or noise reduction in real time. Estimated: a 720x480 deinterlacer using two line buffers consumes roughly 30 M4K blocks and 800 LEs, leaving room for on-screen display logic.
Recommended
Communications Protocol Bridging
Protocol bridging between legacy and modern interfaces is a classic Cyclone use case. The EP1C6TC144-8 can simultaneously host UART, SPI, I2C, and PCI cores in the same fabric, providing glue-logic translation between, for example, an embedded host processor's SPI bus and a downstream CAN or RS-422 network. With 92 user I/Os, multiple parallel buses can be routed without external transceivers. The 1.5 V core and 3.3 V-tolerant I/O banks allow direct connection to legacy 5 V-tolerant PHYs through external resistively-clamped I/O. Designers can prototype in the 144-TQFP package on a through-hole-friendly PCB and migrate to the QFP-240 variant when more I/O is needed. Estimated: a quad-UART bridge plus PCI target core fits comfortably in 4,500 LEs and 40 M4K blocks.
Recommended
Low-Cost DSP Implementation
Although the Cyclone family's embedded multipliers are less capable than modern DSP blocks, the EP1C6TC144-8 still performs well for low-cost DSP tasks such as FIR filtering, FFT pre/post-processing, and audio effects. The 18x18 multiplier capability supports single-cycle MAC operations, and with distributed arithmetic techniques the 5,980 LEs can implement 32-tap FIR filters with no external DSP chip. The two PLLs provide independent sample-rate conversion clocks, useful for audio interfaces that span from 8 kHz voice to 192 kHz hi-fi rates. The 144-TQFP package is compatible with hand-rework-friendly board assemblies, lowering prototype cost. Estimated: a 64-tap audio FIR at 48 kHz uses approximately 2,500 LEs and 16 M4K blocks for coefficient storage.
Recommended
PCI Bus Interface Card
The EP1C6TC144-8 includes dedicated 3.3 V PCI-compliant I/O buffers and supporting logic, making it a natural fit for low-cost PCI add-in cards. At 33 MHz, the -8 speed grade is fully PCI-compliant, and the 92 user I/Os in the 144-TQFP package provide ample room for the 32-bit PCI bus plus application-specific I/O such as opto-isolated digital inputs or serial peripherals. Designers can implement a 32-bit, 33 MHz PCI target core in roughly 600-800 LEs with on-chip DMA engines, leaving the bulk of the device for the application logic. Estimated: a 33 MHz PCI target core with DMA occupies approximately 1,200 LEs and 12 M4K blocks; full card functionality fits within 4,000 LEs.
Recommended
Legacy Design Continuity
Many long-life industrial, military, and avionics programs continue to require the original Cyclone family for proven IP cores and bitstream-level compatibility with deployed systems. The EP1C6TC144-8 provides that continuity - a verified 144-TQFP drop-in with the same 5,980-LE architecture and same Quartus II toolchain support that customers have used for over a decade. For programs that must demonstrate RoHS compliance, the EP1C6T144C8N variant offers the same die with Pb-free lead finish. The 144-TQFP package remains the preferred choice when legacy PCB layouts and through-hole assembly processes must be preserved. Estimated: legacy IP re-use typically requires zero LEs of recompilation overhead - only bitstream regeneration through Quartus II.
Recommended
Recommended Products Summary
Engineering reference data for EP1C6TC144-8 — comparison, design guidance, and compliance information.
Selection Guide
Comparison with Alternatives
| Parameter | This Product | EP1C6T144C8 | EP1C6T144C8N | EP1C6T144C7 | EP1C6T144C7N | EP1C6T144C6N |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Package | 144-TQFP | 144-TQFP | 144-TQFP | 144-TQFP | 144-TQFP | 144-TQFP |
| Brand | Intel | Intel | Intel | Intel | Intel | Intel |
| Logic Elements | 5,980 | 5,980 | 5,980 | 5,980 | 5,980 | 5,980 |
| Speed Grade | -8 (8 ns) | -8 (8 ns) | -8 (8 ns) | -7 (~15% faster) | -7 (~15% faster) | -6 (~25% faster) |
| Embedded Memory | 92,160 bits | 92,160 bits | 92,160 bits | 92,160 bits | 92,160 bits | 92,160 bits |
| PLLs | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| Core Voltage | 1.5 V | 1.5 V | 1.5 V | 1.5 V | 1.5 V | 1.5 V |
| Pb-Free | [DATA_NEEDED] | [DATA_NEEDED] | Yes (Pb-free) | [DATA_NEEDED] | Yes (Pb-free) | Yes (Pb-free) |
Key Differentiators
- Original Cyclone die with mature Quartus II toolchain (vs EP1C6T144C7N)
- 144-TQFP package is through-hole-friendly for prototype assembly (vs EP1C6Q240C8 (240-PQFP))
- Compatible with all original-Cyclone IP cores in the Intel/Altera IP library (vs EP2C5T144C8N (Cyclone II))
Design Notes
The EP1C6TC144-8 requires a clean 1.5 V core supply at up to approximately 500 mA for full logic utilization. Use a low-dropout regulator with at least 20% current headroom above the maximum expected core current, and place decoupling capacitors (0.1 uF plus 10 uF bulk) within 5 mm of each VCCINT pin. VCCIO banks should each have their own decoupling; mixing bank voltages requires careful isolation to prevent latchup.
The 144-pin TQFP package uses 0.5 mm pitch leads - trace escape routing requires vias in the land pattern or dog-bone fanout. Use a 4-layer PCB with continuous ground and power planes for signal integrity; route all clock and DQS signals first with controlled impedance. Place the EPCS configuration memory adjacent to the FPGA with the DATA and DCLK traces kept short and matched within 25 mm.
Do not apply 3.3 V signals to a 1.5 V VCCIO bank - this damages the I/O buffers. Confirm that all banks supplying 5 V-tolerant interfaces use the 3.3 V VCCIO setting. The original Cyclone family does not support hot-socketing; ensure power rails ramp monotonically and that nCONFIG is held low until all supplies are stable.
Estimated: at full 5,980-LE utilization with 100% toggle rate on all 92 I/Os at 100 MHz, the EP1C6TC144-8 dissipates approximately 1.0-1.5 W from the 1.5 V core. The 144-TQFP package thermal resistance is approximately 30 C/W junction-to-ambient with standard 4-layer PCB layout, so the junction temperature rise above ambient stays below 45 C in normal lab conditions. No external heatsink is required, but ensure airflow in enclosed industrial enclosures.
Compliance Information
RoHS and Pb-free status of the original EP1C6TC144-8 depends on the date code - confirm with the supplier's Certificate of Conformance. The EP1C6T144C8N variant is documented as Pb-free. AEC-Q100 not applicable - the original Cyclone family is NRND and not automotive qualified.
