EP1C6Q240I8N - 5980-Cell Cyclone FPGA 240-PQFP | Altera
MPN: EP1C6Q240I8N ✗ End of Life| Qty | Unit Price | Extended |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | $38.5 | $38.50 |
| 10 | $34.2 | $342.00 |
| 100 | $28.9 | $2,890.00 |
| 500 | $24.15 | $12,075.00 |
| 1,000 | $20.4 | $20,400.00 |
Drop-in alternatives for EP1C6Q240I8N — 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:
EP1C6Q240I7N
✅ Drop-In✓ In Stock
$21.75 / Unit
View Datasheet →EP1C6Q240C8N
✅ Drop-In✓ In Stock
$9.6 / Unit
View Datasheet →EP1C6Q240C7N
✅ Drop-In✓ In Stock
$28.9 / Unit
View Datasheet →EP1C6Q240I6N
✅ Drop-In✓ In Stock
$9.85 / Unit
View Datasheet →EP1C12Q240I8N
✅ Drop-In📋 Reference alternative (not in catalog)
EP1C6Q240I8N Maximum Ratings & Electrical Characteristics
| Family | Cyclone |
| Logic Elements | 5,980 |
| Process Technology | 130 nm CMOS |
| Core Voltage | 1.5 V |
| Maximum Operating Frequency | 275.03 MHz |
| Total RAM Bits | 92,160 (20 M4K blocks x 4,608 bits) |
| Number of PLLs | 2 |
| User I/O Pins (max) | 185 |
| Package | 240-pin PQFP (Plastic Quad Flat Pack) |
| Package Pitch | 0.5 mm |
| Configuration Modes | JTAG, Active Serial (AS), Passive Serial (PS) |
| Operating Temperature Grade | Industrial (-40C to +100C) |
| I/O Standards Supported | LVTTL, LVCMOS, SSTL-2/3, LVDS, PCI |
| Mounting Type | Surface Mount (gull-wing leads) |
| RoHS Status | Compliant (lead-free PQFP) |
| Speed Grade | -8 (mid-grade) |
EP1C6Q240I8N 0.5 mm Pin Configuration Guide
Complete pinout information for EP1C6Q240I8N (0.5 mm package) with 185 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 EP1C6Q240I8N.
Refer to the datasheet for full pin configuration.
Estimated pin count: 185 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
EP1C6Q240I8N is suitable for 6 applications: Industrial Control Glue Logic, Telecommunications Interface Bridging, Video Processing Front-End, Motor Control Encoder/Decoder, Legacy Parallel-Bus Expansion, Low-Density ASIC Prototyping.
Industrial Control Glue Logic
The EP1C6Q240I8N is well-suited to industrial glue-logic integration where multiple discrete 74-series logic devices must be consolidated into a single programmable device. Its 5,980 logic elements and 185 user I/Os allow replacement of dozens of discrete gates, latches, and counters on a control board, while the industrial -40C to +100C temperature grade handles factory-floor thermal stress. The 130 nm CMOS core at 1.5 V provides reliable operation in motor-control cabinets and PLC backplanes. Engineers use Cyclone I for encoder decoding, PWM generation, and protocol translation between RS-485 and SPI peripherals.
Recommended
Telecommunications Interface Bridging
In telecom line cards and base-station auxiliary boards, the EP1C6Q240I8N bridges between legacy TDM buses (E1/T1 framers, HDB3 codecs) and modern packet interfaces. Its 185 user I/Os and LVDS support enable direct connection to telecom framer ICs without external transceivers, while the two on-die PLLs synthesize the 2.048 MHz / 8.192 MHz telecom clocks from a system reference. The 240-PQFP package is hand-prototype-friendly for low-volume telecom equipment still in service. LVTTL/LVCMOS compatibility also allows direct interface to legacy 5 V-tolerant bus drivers with external clamping.
Recommended
Video Processing Front-End
The EP1C6Q240I8N is widely used as a video front-end processor for industrial camera and machine-vision systems where it captures ITU-R BT.656 or parallel RGB video streams, performs color-space conversion, and drives a TFT controller. The 20 M4K RAM blocks (92 Kbits) provide line-buffer memory for deinterlacing and scaling operations. At 275 MHz internal Fmax, the device can process standard-definition video (27 MHz pixel clock) with substantial headroom for filtering and OSD overlay generation. The 240-PQFP exposes enough pins for 24-bit RGB, sync, and I2C control to the panel.
Recommended
Motor Control Encoder/Decoder
Servo drives and stepper motor controllers use the EP1C6Q240I8N for quadrature encoder decoding, commutation table lookup, and PID control loop execution. The Cyclone I's hardware multipliers (embedded in the LE structure) handle the 16-bit multiply-accumulate operations needed for digital filtering of the position feedback loop, while the dual PLLs synthesize the high-resolution PWM carrier clocks. The industrial temperature grade supports motor-drive ambient temperatures up to +100C without thermal throttling. The PQFP-240 footprint also enables manual rework during prototyping of custom drive firmware.
Recommended
Legacy Parallel-Bus Expansion
Modern microcontrollers often lack enough parallel I/O for legacy industrial peripherals (ISA bus, PC/104, Centronics, IEEE-488). The EP1C6Q240I8N serves as a bus-expansion companion to a low-pin-count MCU, providing 185 user I/Os and 5,980 logic elements for protocol translation, address decoding, and timing generation. The JTAG interface allows in-field firmware updates on legacy equipment. The 240-PQFP exposes 4-5 separate I/O banks (VCCIO groups) so it can interface simultaneously to 3.3 V MCUs and 5 V peripherals without level shifters.
Recommended
Low-Density ASIC Prototyping
Engineers use the EP1C6Q240I8N as an FPGA prototype for low-density ASICs before committing to NRE charges. With 5,980 LEs and 92 Kbits of block RAM, it accurately models ASICs in the 30k-50k gate range. The Quartus II design flow supports ASIC migration handoff via the HardCopy II structured ASIC family. The 240-PQFP's hand-solder-friendly gull-wing leads make bring-up board revisions easy during prototype iteration. Once the ASIC is fabricated, the same PQFP footprint allows for a HardCopy II structured-ASIC drop-in replacement.
Recommended
Recommended Products Summary
Engineering reference data for EP1C6Q240I8N — comparison, design guidance, and compliance information.
Selection Guide
Comparison with Alternatives
| Parameter | This Product | EP1C6Q240I7N | EP1C6Q240C8N | EP1C6Q240C7N | EP1C6Q240I6N | EP1C12Q240I8N |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brand | Altera | Altera | Altera | Altera | Altera | Altera |
| Package | PQFP-240 | PQFP-240 | PQFP-240 | PQFP-240 | PQFP-240 | PQFP-240 |
| Logic Elements | 5,980 | 5,980 | 5,980 | 5,980 | 5,980 | 12,060 |
| Speed Grade | -8 | -7 (slower) | -8 (same) | -7 (slower) | -6 (slowest) | -8 (same) |
| Temperature Grade | Industrial (-40C to +100C) | Industrial (-40C to +100C) | Commercial (0C to +85C) | Commercial (0C to +85C) | Industrial (-40C to +100C) | Industrial (-40C to +100C) |
| User I/O (max) | 185 | 185 | 185 | 185 | 185 | 185 |
| 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 |
Key Differentiators
- Industrial temperature grade (-40C to +100C) (vs EP1C6Q240C8N)
- Same PQFP-240 footprint allows density upgrade (vs EP1C12Q240I8N)
- Speed grade -8 provides ~10-15% higher Fmax than speed grade -7 (vs EP1C6Q240I7N)
Design Notes
Estimated: at typical industrial utilization of 60-70% LEs toggling at 100 MHz, the EP1C6Q240I8N draws approximately 250-400 mA from the 1.5 V VCCINT rail. Use a low-noise LDO (e.g., TPS7A4501) or a switching regulator with adequate output filtering to provide VCCINT. The VCCIO banks should be powered from 3.3 V or 2.5 V depending on connected peripherals. Decouple each VCCINT pin with 0.1 uF X7R ceramic plus 10 uF bulk tantalum within 5 mm of the lead.
PQFP-240 with 0.5 mm pitch requires careful PCB layout: use 0.2 mm wide traces, 0.4 mm via pads with 0.2 mm via drills, and a 4-layer stack-up with dedicated ground and 1.5 V power planes. Place a continuous ground plane under the entire device footprint to provide low-impedance return paths. The exposed lead frame on PQFP is not electrically connected to GND - unlike QFN, do not rely on it for thermal dissipation. Use external copper pours on top and bottom layers for thermal relief.
Do not confuse the EP1C6Q240I8N with the EP1C6F256I8N (256-FBGA) or EP2C5F256I8N (Cyclone II in FBGA-256) - the PQFP and FBGA packages are not pin-compatible and require entirely different PCB layouts. Also note that Cyclone I uses 1.5 V VCCINT, while Cyclone II uses 1.2 V - mixing these on the same PCB will damage the device. Always verify the package code in the part number suffix before PCB assembly.
For Active Serial (AS) mode configuration, connect an Altera EPCS1, EPCS4, or EPCS16 serial configuration device to the DCLK, ASDO, nCSO, and DATA0 pins. Verify the configuration bitstream size does not exceed the EPCS capacity (EPCS1=1Mbit, EPCS4=4Mbit, EPCS16=16Mbit). JTAG chain ordering is critical if multiple devices share the JTAG bus - use Quartus II's JTAG chain debugger to verify IDCODE scan results during bring-up.
Compliance Information
RoHS compliant per Altera/Intel product page. Not AEC-Q100 qualified - this is an industrial-grade FPGA, not an automotive ASIC. Halogen-free status not explicitly stated in datasheet.
