Altera ships Agilex 3 AI FPGA at under $100
Altera is shipping its low end, AI-enabled Agilex 3 FPGA for under $100 for the smallest part.
The Agilex 3 family will range from 25,000 to 135,000 logic elements, the same as the Cyclone V family launched in 2013 where the lowest density part retails in distribution for under $60. The Agilex adds tensor cores into the fabric alongside dual ARM Cortex-A55 cores to more easily implement AI in embedded applications.
“We are in production with the Agilex 3 with development kits for the embedded segment,” said CEO Sandra Rivera. “This has 1.9x performance over Cyclone V and 38% lower power, more I/O density. With 25,000 to 135,000 logic elements and dual ARM A55 cores for programmability and importantly the AI optimised DSPs with Tensor blocks to infuse AI into the fabric on Agilex 5 and now Agilex 3. Adding AI is just like adding any other IP they would normally deploy,” she said.
While the company would not comment on the exact pricing, Rivera told eeNews Europe “we are looking at value pricing. It will not be double or triple, but it is a premium device.”
“We see that FPGA market will continue to grow with a lot coming the edge AI applications, industrial, automotive, UAVs, so the intelligent edge applications are driven by four sets of requirements: performance, flexibility, security and longevity.”
“At the low end the market is driven by the growth in edge computing with small form factors, and that is where we have had the MAX and Cyclone families where we are investing, as well as investing in greater levels of integration with Agilex 3 with long life support of 15 years,” she said. “We are expanding MAX10 with high I/O density BGA610 package with orders now and production in Q3.”
Altera is spinning out from Intel as a separate company. “Last year it was all about setting up the functions to allow us to operate independently. This year what we have to complete is the ERP manufacturing planning functions which will take us to the end of the year,” said Rivera. “We do feel we are the only independent full stack FPGA provider from the edge to the datacentre.”
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