Spartan-6 LX FPGAs

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Creating Power-Optimized Designs with Virtex®-6 and Spartan-6 FPGAs
Achieve Greater Productivity and Ease of Use with Targeted Design Platforms enabled by Virtex-6 and Spartan-6 FPGA Families

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Spartan-6 Product Table

Spartan®-6 LX FPGAs are optimized for applications that require the absolute lowest cost. Now with up to 42% less power consumption and a 12% increase in performance enabled by ISE® Design Suite, they provide up to 150K logic cells, integrated PCI Express® blocks, advanced memory support, 250MHz DSP slices, and 3.2Gbps low-power transceivers.

Spartan-6 LX FPGAs Benefits

Meet your market requirements for low-cost, high-volume applications

Advanced process technology and 6-input LUT architecture enables implementation of complex, high-performance functionality with smaller devices in the least expensive speed grade
Abundant logic resources with increased logic capacity 3.8K to 150K logic cells for higher performance
Only high-volume, low-cost FPGAs with an integrated memory controller block that lowers cost by saving approximately 3,500 logic cells per controller over soft solutions
Simplified configuration supporting low-cost 3rd party standards
Easy-to-use and high-performance system IP
Totally green, RoHS-compliant Pb-free packaging

Significantly reduce total power consumption

Efficient utilization of 45nm low-power copper process technology
390MHz DSP48A1 slice for up to 50% lower power consumption
Low-voltage device options available for addressing the strictest power budgets
Advanced power management for lower static and dynamic power
- Includes flexible power-saving hibernate and suspend modes
Integrated memory controller supports low power memory standards
- Mobile DDR and 1.3/1.5V DDR3

Spartan-6 FPGA Features

Features	LX	LXT
45nm low power process technology with 6-input LUTs
1080MHz clock management tiles (2 DCM + 1 PLL)	2 - 6	2 - 6
320MHz Block RAM (Kbits)	216 - 4824	936 - 4824
Memory interface controllers blocks	0 - 4	2 - 4
1.08Gbps SelectIO™ technology
390MHz DSP48A1 slices	8 - 180	38 - 180
3.2Gbps GTP transceivers	-	2 - 8
PCI Express Endpoint blocks	-	1
Embedded processing
Low power management modes
Enhanced configuration and bitstream protection

45nm low power process technology with 6-input LUTs

Optimized for cost, power and performance, most efficient utilization of low-power copper process technology.

The Spartan-6 family of FPGAs offer low-risk, more efficient dual-register 6-input look-up tables (LUT)s by leveraging the CLB structure first introduced with the Virtex-5 FPGA family.

Efficient 6-input LUTs improve performance and minimize power
LUT designed with dual flip-flops for pipelined centric applications
Flexible LUTs are configurable as logic, distributed RAM or shift registers
From 3,400 to 150,000 logic cells for greater system-level integration

1080MHz clock management tiles (2 DCM + 1 PLL)

Clock Management Tile (CMT) for enhanced performance.

Each Spartan-6 FPGA provides abundant clock lines to address the different clocking requirements of high fanout, short propagation delay, and extremely low skew.

Low noise, flexible clocking
Digital Clock Managers (DCMs) eliminate clock skew and duty cycle distortion
Phase-Locked Loops (PLLs) for low‑jitter clocking
Frequency synthesis with simultaneous multiplication, division, and phase shifting
16 low-skew global clock networks

320MHz Block RAM (Kbits)

Efficient block RAM with a wide range of granularity.

The Spartan-6 FPGA family increases block RAM size with higher memory to logic ratio than previous generations. All Spartan-6 FPGA devices have between 12 and 268 dual-port block RAMs, each storing 18Kbits.

Increased memory block capacity to 4.8Mbits
Fast block RAM with byte write enable
18Kb blocks that can be optionally programmed as two independent 9Kb block RAMs
Each block RAM has 2 completely independent ports that share stored data
- Each port can be configured as 16K × 1, 8K × 2, 4K × 4, 2K × 9 (or 8), 1K × 18 (or 16), or 512 x 36 (or 32)

Memory interface controllers blocks

Only low-cost, high-volume FPGA with integrated memory controller blocks.

Dedicated memory controller blocks (MCB)s target a single-chip DRAM and support access rates of up to 800Mbps.

DDR, DDR2, DDR3, and LPDDR support
Data rates up to 800Mbps (12.8Gbps peak bandwidth)
Internal 32-, 64-, or 128-bit data interface provides simple and reliable interface to the MCB
Multi-port bus structure with independent FIFO to reduce design timing issues
Predictable timing for memory interface designs
Software wizard to guide through the entire process

1.08Gbps SelectIO™ technology

Multi-voltage, multi-standard SelectIO banks.

Each I/O pin is configurable and can comply with a large number of standards, using up to 3.3V.

Up to 1050Mbps data transfer rate per differential I/O
Selectable output drive, up to 24mA per pin
3.3V to 1.2V I/O standards and protocols
- Full 16mA and 24mA output drives
Low‑cost HSTL and SSTL memory interfaces
Hot swap compliance
Adjustable I/O slew rates to improve signal integrity

390MHz DSP48A1 slices

Boost DSP system performance using Spartan-6 FPGAs.

Spartan-6 FPGAs contain dedicated, full-custom, low-power DSP slices, combining high speed with small size, while retaining system design flexibility.

Up to 180 efficient, second generation DSP48A1 slices
High-performance arithmetic and signal processing
Each slice containing a fast 18 x 18 multiplier and a 48-bit accumulator capable of operating at 390MHz speed
Pipelining and cascading capability
Pre-adder to assist filter applications
50% lower power consumption: 1.38mW/ 100MHz at a 38% toggle rate

3.2Gbps GTP transceivers

Spartan-6 compliments low-cost logic capacity with high-speed serial connectivity.

Each GTP transceiver is a combined transmitter and receiver capable of operating at a data rate between 600Mbps and 3.2Gbps.

Implement serial protocols at lowest power
Devices contain up to 8 gigabit transceiver circuits
Up to 3.2Gbps performance
High speed interfaces: Serial ATA, Aurora, 1G Ethernet, PCI Express, OBSAI, CPRI, EPON, GPON, DisplayPort, and XAUI
Lower power consumption: < 150mW (typical) at 3.2Gbps
Available in Spartan-6 LXT FPGA devices

PCI Express Endpoint blocks

Integrated endpoint block for PCI Express designs.

Implemented in 45nm low-power technology, the Spartan-6 integrated end-point block for PCI Express 1.1 is low-risk and standards-compliant.

Works with GTP transceivers to deliver PCIe® endpoint and root port function
Built-in hard IP frees user logic resources and reduces power
PCI SIG®-verified Gen1 compliance (on integrators list)
Low cost PCI™ technology support compatible with the 32 bit, 66MHz specification
Available in Spartan-6 LXT FPGA devices

Embedded processing

Faster embedded processing with enhanced, low cost, MicroBlaze™ soft processor.

The MicroBlaze soft processor solution gives you the flexibility to select a combination of peripherals, memory, and interface features you need at the lowest cost on a single FPGA.

New MicroBlaze 7.0 adds MMU & FPU for greater functionality
6-input LUT architecture improves performance & efficiency for comparator & multiplexer
2X flip-flops for embedded registers
Hard DRAM memory controller with 12.8Gbps memory bandwidth

Low power management modes

The 45nm process optimized for low static and dynamic power.

Spartan-6 power management modes allow the devices to go to an extremely low power state reducing power consumption significantly.

Up to 50% lower static power and 40% lower dynamic power
Hibernate power‑down mode for zero power
Suspend mode maintains state and configuration with multi-pin wake‑up, control enhancement
Lower-power 1.0V core voltage (LX FPGAs, -1L only)
High performance 1.2V core voltage (LX and LXT FPGAs, -2 and -3 speed grades)

Enhanced configuration and bitstream protection

Reduce system cost, increase reliability, and safeguard your design.

Spartan-6 FPGAs include a unique, factory-programmed Device DNA identifier useful for tracking purposes, anticloning designs, or IP protection.

Simplified configuration, supports low-cost standards
2-pin auto-detect configuration
Broad third-party SPI (up to x4) and NOR Flash support
Feature rich Xilinx Platform Flash with JTAG
MultiBoot support for remote upgrade with multiple bitstreams, using watchdog protection
Unique Device DNA identifier for design authentication
AES bitstream encryption in the larger devices

What applications is this good for?

Enhance user experience for next-generation automotive infotainment

Spartan-6 FPGAs provide the flexibility to respond rapidly to changing consumer requirements.

Improve video performance with customized graphics accelerators and flexible parallel and serial interface capabilities
Simplify interfacing to host processors and reduce component count with integrated PCI Express® technology
Accelerate design with IP offerings for graphics processing, video conversion, high-speed interfacing, and vehicle networks

In-Car Infotainment System

Serving as a companion to the host processor, a single Spartan-6 LX45T FPGA supports audio/video acceleration, graphics subsystem, and vehicle networking functions.

Increase the picture quality of flat-panel displays

Spartan-6 FPGAs offer a cost-efficient alternative to ASICs and enable DTV manufacturers to rapidly develop and deliver displays offering a superior viewing experience within ever-shrinking product lifecycles.

Achieve tough performance and EMI targets easily with low-jitter spread-spectrum clocking
Reduce power consumption, simplify thermal management, increase reliability, and reduce cost with high capacity, low power FPGAs
Increase image quality with a rich library of image enhancement IP such as dynamic gamma correction, motion adaptive temporal noise reduction, and dynamic range compression
Simplify high-bandwidth interfaces with flexible SelectIO technology, an integrated memory controller block, and DisplayPort-enabled 3.2Gpbs GTP transceivers

High-Resolution Video Flat Panel Display with Dynamic Backlight Control

Achieve higher image quality while reducing power and cost using Spartan-6 FPGAs with integrated serial I/O capabilities.

Increase security through real-time image interpretation in video surveillance

Spartan-6 FPGAs offer the ideal combination of performance and flexibility to address requirements for high resolution, video analytics, and increased channels in video surveillance systems.

Build flexible front-end image processing to support higher video resolutions
Process native resolution image data at full frame rate using highly parallel implementations based on DSP48A slices
Implement edge-based video analytics with cost-effective customized co-processors

Surveillance Image Capture and Analytics Engine

Integrate sensor interfacing, video analytics, image enhancement and network interfacing in a single Spartan-6 LX150T FPGA.

Key Documents

Name	Modified	Size
Spartan-6 Family Overview	10/25/2011	308 KB
Spartan-6 FPGA Data Sheet: DC and Switching Characteristics	10/17/2011	1.86 MB
Spartan-6 FPGA Clocking Resources User Guide	05/12/2011	4.26 MB
Spartan-6 FPGA Product Brief

View All Spartan-6 Technical Documentation >