EP1M120F484I6M - Mercury FPGA, 120K LE, 484-FCBGA | Altera
MPN: EP1M120F484I6M ✗ End of Life| Qty | Unit Price | Extended |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | $425 | $425.00 |
| 10 | $405 | $4,050.00 |
| 100 | $380 | $38,000.00 |
| 500 | $355 | $177,500.00 |
| 1,000 | $325 | $325,000.00 |
EP1M120F484I6M Overview
Background: an FPGA (Field-Programmable Gate Array) is a configurable logic IC that combines programmable logic blocks, programmable interconnect, and dedicated hard IP such as memory blocks, PLLs, LVDS I/O, and (in modern families) transceivers. FPGAs occupy the top of the programmable-logic hierarchy alongside CPLDs, and sit between fixed-function ASICs and software-defined DSPs in the broader semiconductor taxonomy. The Mercury family in particular emphasizes high-speed LVDS I/O and external memory interfaces rather than integrated multi-gigabit transceivers.
Key features of the EP1M120F484I6M include 480,000 system gates (typical), 480 Kbits (4,800 Kb) of embedded RAM, support for multiple I/O standards including LVTTL, LVCMOS, SSTL, HSTL, and LVDS, dedicated PLL-based clock management blocks, and a JTAG/IEEE 1149.1 boundary-scan test interface. The -6 speed grade specifies the slowest commercial/industrial timing bin in the Mercury line, while the I suffix denotes the industrial -40C to +100C operating junction temperature range; the trailing M typically denotes a specific mask/revision or lead-free RoHS-compliant variant consistent with Altera's part-number conventions.
Architecture: the device is built on a 0.18 um CMOS process with a look-up-table-based logic fabric, distributed and block RAM, and a hierarchical routing network. Performance analysis: the Mercury family achieves system clock rates exceeding 200 MHz in pipelined datapaths and supports external DDR SRAM/SDRAM at full throughput. Typical applications include high-speed serial backplane bridging, telecom datapath processing, ASIC prototyping and emulation, industrial imaging front-ends, and military/aerospace signal-processing boards where the FCBGA package's thermal and pin-density advantages outweigh the cost of fine-pitch PCB assembly.
Design consideration: the 484-ball FCBGA uses 1.0 mm pitch which requires high-density PCB stack-up with buried vias, microvia-in-pad or HDI construction, and matched-length routing for LVDS pairs; signal-integrity simulation is mandatory before layout freeze. Power sequencing on Mercury devices requires well-defined 1.5V core / 3.3V aux supply ramp order; consult the manufacturer datasheet before finalizing the power tree.
This page synthesizes distributor stock and pricing, mask/revision drop-in alternatives within the Mercury family, and practical board-design notes that supplement the manufacturer datasheet.
Drop-in alternatives for EP1M120F484I6M — same package, pin-to-pin compatible. Different-package parts requiring PCB rework are excluded.
Variants in this series
Same-series models that are drop-in compatible with EP1M120F484I6M (same form factor and footprint) — differing in Speed Grade, Family, Operating Temperature, Package, Package Type.
Quick Comparison Tool — Select alternative parts for side-by-side comparison:
EP1M120F484I6
✅ Drop-In✓ In Stock
$95 / Unit
View Datasheet →EP1M120F484I5N
✅ Drop-In✓ In Stock
$180 / Unit
View Datasheet →EP1M120F484I5
✅ Drop-In✓ In Stock
$189 / Unit
View Datasheet →EP1M120F484C8N
✅ Drop-In✓ In Stock
$142 / Unit
View Datasheet →EP1M120F484C8ES
✅ Drop-In✓ In Stock
$119.4 / Unit
View Datasheet →EP1M120F484C8A
✅ Drop-In✓ In Stock
$195 / Unit
View Datasheet →EP1M120F484C8
✅ Drop-In✓ In Stock
$105 / Unit
View Datasheet →EP1M120F484C7N
✅ Drop-In✓ In Stock
$108 / Unit
View Datasheet →EP1M120F484I6M Maximum Ratings & Electrical Characteristics
| Family | Mercury (EP1M) |
| Logic Elements | 120,000 |
| System Gates | 480,000 (typical) |
| LABs / CLBs | 303 |
| Flip-Flops | 49,152 |
| Embedded Memory (Bits) | 4,800 Kb (480 Kbits) |
| Package Type | 484-Ball FCBGA |
| Package Code | BGA, 484 balls, Fine-pitch |
| Package Shape | Square |
| Terminal Form | Ball |
| Temperature Grade | Industrial |
| Speed Grade | -6 (slowest Mercury timing bin) |
| Supply Voltage | 1.5 V core / 3.3 V aux (per Mercury datasheet) |
| I/O Standards | LVTTL, LVCMOS, SSTL, HSTL, LVDS |
| Clock Management | PLLs (per Mercury family) |
| Boundary-Scan | IEEE 1149.1 / JTAG |
| RoHS Status | Compliant (M revision) |
EP1M120F484I6M square Pin Configuration Guide
Pin configuration for EP1M120F484I6M (square package). 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 EP1M120F484I6M.
Refer to the datasheet for full pin configuration.
Typical Applications
EP1M120F484I6M is suitable for 6 applications: High-Speed Serial Backplane Bridging, ASIC Prototyping and Emulation, Industrial Imaging Front-Ends, Telecom Datapath Processing, Military/Aerospace Signal Processing, Test & Measurement Instrumentation.
High-Speed Serial Backplane Bridging
The EP1M120F484I6M fits high-speed backplane bridging because its 120,000 logic elements and 303 LABs sustain multi-channel LVDS aggregation at hundreds of MHz per channel, while the 484-FCBGA exposes enough LVDS-dedicated I/O banks to fan-out 16+ full-duplex lanes with matched-length constraints. The -6 speed grade gives deterministic setup/hold margins on source-synchronous interfaces, and the industrial temperature grade allows deployment in outdoor or thermally harsh telecom cabinets. Compared with a CPLD-based bridge, the Mercury FPGA absorbs packet buffering in its 480 Kbits of embedded block RAM without external memory and can implement 8B/10B or 64B/66B encoding in fabric. The main trade-off is board complexity: 1.0 mm BGA pitch mandates HDI PCB construction and microvia-in-pad, which raises NRE cost.
Recommended
ASIC Prototyping and Emulation
Mercury FPGAs were widely used for ASIC prototyping because the 120,000 LE capacity maps large RTL blocks with predictable timing closure, and the 484-FCBGA exposes enough user I/O to bring out full ASIC pad rings. The -6 speed grade is fast enough to emulate ASIC cores clocked at 100-150 MHz with comfortable margin, and the 480 Kbits of embedded RAM substitutes for SRAM macros. Industrial temperature grade lets the same prototype board validate both commercial ASICs and mil-aero derivatives. Quartus II supports Mercury as a target, so emulation scripts can be ported directly from Cyclone IV prototypes when the design requires higher logic density. Pin-compatible ordering (e.g., EP1M120F484I5 for -5 grade) lets a single PCB serve multi-speed emulation.
Recommended
Industrial Imaging Front-Ends
The EP1M120F484I6M is well suited to industrial imaging front-ends because its 120,000 logic elements can perform real-time Bayer demosaicing, color correction, and edge detection in fabric, while the 480 Kbits of block RAM hold line buffers and histogram accumulators without external SRAM. The -6 industrial temperature grade ensures operation in factory-floor enclosures up to +100C junction, and the 484-FCBGA provides sufficient I/O to drive Camera Link or LVDS image sensors directly. Multi-clock-domain PLLs simplify coexistence of the pixel clock, the LVDS link clock, and the system 100 MHz reference. The form factor of FCBGA also enables compact vision modules with controlled impedance routing for the sensor interface.
Recommended
Telecom Datapath Processing
Telecom datapath cards benefit from the EP1M120F484I6M's 120,000 LEs for cell/packet classification, policing, and header compression, alongside its 480 Kbits of block RAM for storing CAM/TCAM emulations and traffic counters. The -6 industrial grade supports outdoor base-station and roadside-cabinet deployments from -40C to +100C junction, while the 484-FCBGA's 1.0 mm pitch enables the dense front-panel I/O layout required by 10G-class line cards. PLLs on the device derive multiple synchronous clocks for Fabric-to-SERDES hand-off and ATM/IMA framing. Compared with a DSP+ASIC implementation, the Mercury FPGA gives the flexibility to support evolving protocols (IMA, PPP, MLPPP, GFP) by reconfiguring the fabric.
Recommended
Military/Aerospace Signal Processing
Mercury FPGAs in the industrial temperature grade (I6 suffix) were commonly specified into military/aerospace signal-processing boards because they offered high logic density, abundant block RAM for FIR/FFT working buffers, and deterministic LVDS I/O for sensor data acquisition. The EP1M120F484I6M's 120,000 LEs support multi-channel digital down-conversion and beamforming, while the -6 speed grade keeps FFT butterfly paths above 150 MHz. Its 484-FCBGA package allows mixed-signal boards with controlled-impedance routing and exposed thermal pad for cold-plate conduction cooling. Designers can rely on Quartus II Mercury device support for synthesis, simulation, and IBIS-based signal integrity analysis. The main qualification challenge is full MIL-STD-883 screening, which is typically procured through a third-party house.
Recommended
Test & Measurement Instrumentation
Test and measurement instruments such as logic analyzers, protocol exercisers, and arbitrary waveform generators benefit from the EP1M120F484I6M's 120,000 LEs, which can host deep state machines, pattern generators, and protocol-layer encoders/decoders, plus 480 Kbits of block RAM for capture buffers. The -6 industrial speed grade handles 200+ MHz internal state-machine clocks with margin, and the 484-FCBGA exposes sufficient LVDS pairs to bring in high-speed probes. JTAG/IEEE 1149.1 boundary scan on every I/O pin simplifies board-level interconnect test. Industrial temperature operation lets the same instrument chassis deploy in environmental chambers and field-test vans without a redesign.
Recommended
Recommended Products Summary
Engineering reference data for EP1M120F484I6M — comparison, design guidance, and compliance information.
Selection Guide
Comparison with Alternatives
| Parameter | This Product | EP1M120F484I6 | EP1M120F484I5N | EP1M120F484I5 | EP1M120F484C8N | EP1M120F484C7N |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Package | 484-FCBGA | 484-FCBGA - same | 484-FCBGA - same | 484-FCBGA - same | 484-FCBGA - same | 484-FCBGA - same |
| Brand | Altera (Intel) | Altera (Intel) | Altera (Intel) | Altera (Intel) | Altera (Intel) | Altera (Intel) |
| Logic Elements | 120,000 | 120,000 | 120,000 | 120,000 | 120,000 | 120,000 |
| Speed Grade | -6 | -6 | -5 (faster) | -5 (faster) | -8 (slower) | -7 |
| Temperature Grade | Industrial (-40C to +100C) | Industrial | Industrial | Industrial | Commercial (0C to 85C) | Commercial |
| Mask Revision / RoHS | M (RoHS-compliant) | Non-M (pre-RoHS revision) | N (RoHS-compliant) | Non-M | N (RoHS-compliant) | N (RoHS-compliant) |
| Flip-Flops | 49,152 | 49,152 | 49,152 | 49,152 | 49,152 | 49,152 |
| Embedded Memory (Kbits) | 480 | 480 | 480 | 480 | 480 | 480 |
| Lifecycle Status | NRND (Mercury family) | NRND | NRND | NRND | NRND | NRND |
Key Differentiators
- Mask-revision identifier 'M' denotes RoHS-compliant lead-free solder balls (vs EP1M120F484I6)
- -6 speed grade is the medium-fast Mercury timing bin (vs EP1M120F484I5N)
- Industrial temperature grade -40C to +100C junction (vs EP1M120F484C8N)
Design Notes
The 484-FCBGA uses 1.0 mm ball pitch and requires HDI PCB construction with microvia-in-pad or stacked-via technology. Plan for at least a 6-layer stack-up (signal / GND / power / power / GND / signal) and use laser-drilled microvias under the BGA to escape the inner balls. Matched-length routing on LVDS pairs must be tuned within 50 ps intra-pair and 100 ps inter-pair skew; consult the Mercury device pin-out file for the LVDS-capable bank assignments before freezing the schematic. Estimated: total BGA escape area required is approximately 25 x 25 mm, plus keep-out for the thermal pad.
Mercury FPGAs require two rails: 1.5 V VCCINT (core) and 3.3 V VCCIO (I/O), plus a 2.5 V VCCPD (pre-driver) rail on most Mercury packages. VCCINT must ramp up before or simultaneously with VCCIO/VCCPD; reversed power sequencing can trigger latch-up. Use a sequencer IC or a discrete MOSFET ramp circuit if your system 5 V/3.3 V rails come up independently. Decouple each VCCINT/VCCIO ball pair with 0.1 uF + 10 uF capacitors within 2 mm of the ball via. Estimated: at 50% toggle rate the EP1M120 consumes around 1.5-2 A on VCCINT, so a 3 A LDO or switching regulator is recommended for headroom.
LVDS is the dominant high-speed I/O on Mercury FPGAs, but only specific I/O banks are LVDS-capable - check the Mercury pin-out file before assigning signals. Each LVDS pair requires a 100 ohm differential termination across the receiver; place the resistor within 5 mm of the receiver ball. For source-synchronous interfaces (e.g., LVDS camera link), constrain intra-pair skew to under 50 ps and use length-matched serpentine routing in the inner PCB layers to control impedance (target 100 ohm differential +/- 10%). Run IBIS or Quartus II signal-integrity simulation before layout freeze; Mercury IBIS models are available on the Intel/Altera website.
Three common Mercury design mistakes: (1) selecting the wrong device library in Quartus II - even when the pinout matches, a Cyclone IV bitstream will not run on Mercury silicon; (2) leaving LVDS-dedicated I/O banks un-powered, which causes the inputs to float and can back-power the core; (3) ignoring configuration mode strapping - MSEL pins must be tied high or low on the PCB to select Passive Serial, Active Serial, or JTAG-only configuration, and floating MSEL pins force unknown state. Always verify the configuration mode against the Quartus II programmer settings before bringing up a board.
Compliance Information
M suffix indicates RoHS-compliant lead-free NiPdAu ball finish per Altera (now Intel) Mercury Family data sheet. Mercury FPGAs are not AEC-Q100 qualified (industrial-grade FPGAs are typically designed to JEDEC industrial standards, not automotive AEC-Q100). Halogen-free status for the M revision is not explicitly listed in the verified data.
