AMD announced a new release – a new Spartan UltraScale+ FGPA line, the successor of Spartan 6 and Spartan 7. The new Field Programmable Gate Arrays are distinguishable with high energy efficiency and affordable price, which is made possible due to the higher density provided by the 16-nanometer manufacturing process.
Field Programmable Gate Arrays belong to the class of programmable logic devices, devices that can be programmed to obtain any digital circuit. FPGAs however, are rather expensive, resource-intensive, and have high hardware requirements. The main usage cases for FPGA include the usage in industry, robotechnics, and supercomputers.
Spartan chips are a logical addition to existing product lines Zynq UltraScale+ and Artix UltraScale+, with the highest number of I/O to logic cells and 30% lower energy consumption. Besides that, the new line features encryption, is equipped with a random number generator (TRNG), and complies with NIST post-quantum cryptography standards, which is combined with a compact size from 10x10mm to 23x23mm with BGA and CSP packaging options. The number of logic cells ranges from 11 to 218, and the on-board memory from 1.77 to 26.8 Mbytes. More advanced models starting with SU65P feature PCIe 4.0 and LPDDR4x/5 interfaces.
