EPF81500AQC240-4 - FLEX 8000 FPGA, 16K Gates, 240-PQFP | Altera
MPN: EPF81500AQC240-4 ✗ End of Life| Qty | Unit Price | Extended |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | $38.5 | $38.50 |
| 10 | $32.75 | $327.50 |
| 100 | $26.4 | $2,640.00 |
| 500 | $21.9 | $10,950.00 |
| 1,000 | $18.25 | $18,250.00 |
Drop-in alternatives for EPF81500AQC240-4 — same package, pin-to-pin compatible. Different-package parts requiring PCB rework are excluded.
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View Datasheet →EPF81500AQC240-4 Maximum Ratings & Electrical Characteristics
| Family | FLEX 8000 |
| Usable Gates | 16,000 |
| Logic Elements / Cells | 1,296 |
| User I/O Pins | 181 |
| Package | 240-BFQFP (Plastic Quad Flat Pack) |
| Supply Voltage (Core) | 5 V |
| I/O Voltage (MultiVolt) | 3.3 V or 5.0 V selectable |
| Process Technology | 0.42 µm CMOS SRAM |
| Logic Family | CMOS |
| Propagation Delay (typical) | 1.7 ns |
| LE-to-LE Delay (tpd) | 4.9 ns (16-bit decode path) |
| Maximum Frequency | 125 MHz |
| Configuration Method | SRAM, serial or parallel |
| Configuration Devices | EPC1, EPC1064, EPC1213, EPC1441 |
| Operating Temperature | 0 °C to +70 °C (commercial) |
| Speed Grade | -4 |
EPF81500AQC240-4 240-bfqfp (plastic quad flat pack) Pin Configuration Guide
Complete pinout information for EPF81500AQC240-4 (240-bfqfp (plastic quad flat pack) package) with 181 pins. This digital IC includes GPIO, communication interfaces (UART, SPI, I2C), and power pins. Refer to the manufacturer datasheet for alternate pin functions and configuration options. Essential for embedded system design and PCB layout.
No detailed pinout data available for EPF81500AQC240-4.
Refer to the datasheet for full pin configuration.
Estimated pin count: 181 pins (digital package)
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
EPF81500AQC240-4 is suitable for 6 applications: Telecommunications Line-Card Glue Logic, Industrial Control and Factory Automation, DSP Preprocessing Pipelines, Legacy PCI Bus Bridges and Adapters, Test and Measurement Instrumentation, Embedded System Glue Logic and Bus Arbitration.
Telecommunications Line-Card Glue Logic
The EPF81500AQC240-4 is well suited to telecommunications line-card glue logic where it bridges parallel TDM buses, performs protocol conversion between E1/T1 framers and backplane ASICs, and runs low-rate state machines. Its 181 user I/O pins expose ample parallel bus width for 16- or 32-bit datapaths without external muxes, while the -4 speed grade's 125 MHz capability comfortably accommodates 8.192 MHz E1 and 1.544 MHz T1 bitstreams with timing margin to spare. The MultiVolt I/O feature lets the FPGA sit between 5 V framer logic and 3.3 V backplane transceivers without level shifters. Configuration is held in an EPC1441 serial EPROM, simplifying in-system firmware updates via JTAG during factory provisioning and field maintenance cycles.
Recommended
Industrial Control and Factory Automation
In industrial control cabinets, the EPF81500AQC240-4 implements deterministic PLC-style state machines, encoder/counter decoding, and motor-control sequencing. Its 1,296 logic cells support 10-20 concurrent finite-state machines plus PWM generation and quadrature decoding, while the 181 I/O drive 24 V optically-isolated field-side signals via on-board buffers. The 5 V core and MultiVolt I/O let the part sit next to legacy 5 V sensors and 3.3 V ARM Cortex MCUs without glue logic. Designers typically load configuration from an EPC1064 over the serial interface and use JTAG for in-circuit verification during machine commissioning. The 0 °C to +70 °C commercial temperature range covers most factory-floor enclosures.
Recommended
DSP Preprocessing Pipelines
The EPF81500AQC240-4 serves as a front-end for DSP preprocessing in audio base stations, sonar signal conditioning, and instrumentation front-ends. Its 1,296 logic cells implement FIR filters, FFT pre-processing, sample-rate conversion, and gain control ahead of an external DSP or ASIC. The 125 MHz operation of the -4 speed grade allows parallel multiply-accumulate (MAC) at sample rates up to ~25 MHz with 16-bit coefficients, while the 16,000 usable gates handle several cascaded biquad stages. The wide 240-BFQFP footprint exposes enough I/O for parallel 16-bit ADC/DAC buses plus JTAG, status LEDs, and host interrupts on a single chip.
Recommended
Legacy PCI Bus Bridges and Adapters
Legacy PCI add-in cards, particularly those designed in the late 1990s and early 2000s, use the EPF81500AQC240-4 as a 32-bit/33 MHz PCI target or master bridge to legacy ISA, VME, or proprietary backplanes. Its 1,296 cells and 16,000 usable gates implement the PCI configuration space, target/master state machines, and FIFO handshaking on a single device. The 240-BFQFP's 181 I/O pins drive the 32-bit PCI bus plus parity, interrupt, and GPIO signals with no external muxes. New PCI designs target the -4 speed grade; maintenance spares often drop in the -3 grade at lower cost.
Recommended
Test and Measurement Instrumentation
Test and measurement instruments such as logic analysers, protocol exercisers, and modular data-acquisition systems use the EPF81500AQC240-4 for timing generation, pattern generation, and front-panel control. The 181 user I/O fan out to connectorised test points, while 1,296 cells implement 32-bit pattern sequencers and timing-edge generators. The -4 speed grade's 125 MHz capability drives 100 MHz pattern clocks with deterministic jitter from the FLEX 8000 PLL clock network. MultiVolt I/O lets the same board talk to 3.3 V CMOS logic analysers and 5 V TTL instrumentation simultaneously. JTAG boundary scan accelerates board-level test bring-up.
Recommended
Embedded System Glue Logic and Bus Arbitration
The EPF81500AQC240-4 is a common glue-logic choice for embedded systems that integrate PowerPC, MIPS, or ARM processors with peripheral ASICs, SRAM, and Flash memories. Its 1,296 cells implement bus arbiters, address decoding, wait-state generators, and interrupt controllers on a single chip, replacing dozens of 74-series logic devices. The 240-BFQFP's 181 I/O accommodate 32-bit address/data buses plus chip-select, DMA, and interrupt lines. Designers typically boot from an EPC1441 serial EPROM that holds both the FLEX 8000 bitstream and a small bootloader for the host CPU. The MultiVolt I/O bridges 5 V processor buses and 3.3 V peripheral ASICs without external transceivers.
Recommended
Recommended Products Summary
Engineering reference data for EPF81500AQC240-4 — comparison, design guidance, and compliance information.
Selection Guide
Comparison with Alternatives
| Parameter | This Product | EPF81500AQC240-3 | EPF81500AQC240-2 | EPF81500AQC240-2N | EPF81188AQC240-4 | EPF81188AQC240-3 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brand | Altera | Altera | Altera | Altera | Altera | Altera |
| Package | 240-BFQFP | 240-BFQFP - same | 240-BFQFP - same | 240-BFQFP - same | 240-BFQFP - same | 240-BFQFP - same |
| Usable Gates | 16,000 | 16,000 | 16,000 | 16,000 | 12,000 | 12,000 |
| Logic Cells | 1,296 | 1,296 | 1,296 | 1,296 | 936 | 936 |
| User I/O | 181 | 181 | 181 | 181 | 181 | 181 |
| Speed Grade | -4 (~125 MHz) | -3 | -2 | -2 (lead-free) | -4 | -3 |
| Core Voltage | 5 V | 5 V | 5 V | 5 V | 5 V | 5 V |
| Lead-Free / RoHS | [DATA_NEEDED] | [DATA_NEEDED] | [DATA_NEEDED] | Lead-free (per suffix 'N') | [DATA_NEEDED] | [DATA_NEEDED] |
| Lifecycle | Obsolete (aftermarket only) | Obsolete (aftermarket only) | Obsolete (aftermarket only) | Obsolete (aftermarket only) | Obsolete (aftermarket only) | Obsolete (aftermarket only) |
Key Differentiators
- Highest speed grade in the EPF81500A 240-BFQFP family (vs EPF81500AQC240-3)
- Maximum logic density in the FLEX 8000 240-BFQFP package (vs EPF81188AQC240-4)
- MultiVolt I/O for mixed-voltage system design (vs EPF81500AQC240-2N)
Design Notes
Estimated: at VCCINT = 5.0 V with the FLEX 8000 EPF81500A running 100% utilisation at 125 MHz, ICC draws around 250-300 mA (approximately 1.25-1.5 W). Bulk-decouple VCCINT with a 100 µF tantalum plus 0.1 µF ceramic per supply pin cluster, and place 10 µF ceramics at each VCCIO bank. The MultiVolt I/O feature means separate VCCIO rails for 3.3 V and 5.0 V banks; do not float unused VCCIO pins. Power-on ramp should be monotonic within 1 ms to avoid configuration SRAM corruption.
The 240-BFQFP package has 0.5 mm pitch gull-wing leads that require careful PCB layout: use 0.15 mm/0.20 mm land patterns with NSMD (non-solder mask defined) pads for best solder joint reliability. Route all 181 user I/O on inner layers with 50 Ω controlled impedance, keep length matching within 25 mils for parallel buses, and place the configuration EPROM (EPC1/EPC1064/EPC1213/EPC1441) within 50 mm of the nCONFIG pin to keep the serial configuration path short and noise-free.
Do not confuse the EPF81500A (FLEX 8000, SRAM-based, 5 V) with the EPF81500 (original FLEX 8000, no 'A' suffix) - the 'A' revision uses the 0.42 µm process and MultiVolt I/O but otherwise shares the same datasheet. Also note that the EPF81188A is a logic-reduced member of the same family with only 12,000 usable gates; designs targeting the EPF81500A's 1,296 cells will not fit. Finally, the obsolete lifecycle status means new designs should consider Cyclone-series equivalents with appropriate PCB rework.
Compliance Information
Original Altera FLEX 8000 family predates widespread RoHS compliance mandates; the '-2N' suffix variants indicate lead-free terminal finish. RoHS and REACH compliance status are not stated in the verified distributor data and are marked [DATA_NEEDED] in specs. AEC-Q100 is not applicable since this is a commercial-grade FPGA with 0-70 °C operating range.
