EP20K400FC784-3 - APEX 20K 400K Gates FPGA, BGA-784 | Intel
MPN: EP20K400FC784-3 ✗ End of Life| Qty | Unit Price | Extended |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | $285 | $285.00 |
| 10 | $255 | $2,550.00 |
| 100 | $220 | $22,000.00 |
| 500 | $195 | $97,500.00 |
| 1,000 | $175 | $175,000.00 |
EP20K400FC784-3 Overview
A Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) is a semiconductor IC containing an array of configurable logic blocks (CLBs), programmable interconnect, and programmable I/O cells that can be rewired to implement arbitrary digital circuits after manufacture. Within the broader taxonomy, the EP20K400 belongs to the programmable-logic-device family, which sits under digital logic ICs and, more generally, under Integrated Circuits (ICs) and semiconductors. APEX 20K is Intel/Altera's first MultiCore FPGA architecture, integrating both fine-grain LUT logic and coarse-grain embedded array blocks (EABs/ESBs) for true hardware-software co-design.
Key features of the EP20K400 include maximum system gates up to 1,052,000, up to 21,168 logic elements, 212,992 RAM bits distributed across embedded system blocks, 4 PLLs for clock management, and 488 user I/O pins in the FC784 package. Speed grade -3 indicates a commercial-temperature AC performance grade. MultiVolt I/O support (1.8V, 2.5V, 3.3V, 5.0V) lets the device bridge multiple logic levels without external translators.
The APEX 20K architecture combines four-input LUT-based logic elements with embedded array blocks (ESBs) that can each implement RAM, ROM, FIFO, or product-term logic. This dual-grain structure allows efficient implementation of wide datapaths (via LUTs) and large memory structures (via ESBs) on the same silicon. The high-performance interconnect uses FastTrack routing to deliver predictable timing across the die.
Typical applications include telecommunications line cards, network switches and routers, DSP co-processing, high-speed data acquisition front-ends, custom peripheral controllers, and ASIC prototyping for designs targeting up to ~1M system gates. The 488 user I/Os make the FC784 well suited to bus-intensive designs.
When designing with this device, plan for legacy 0.18 µm process power behavior: I/O supply current scales with toggle rate, so decoupling must follow Intel/Altera's AN 117 reference. Speed grade -3 is not the fastest in the family; -1/-2 grades are preferred when timing margin is tight. Note that APEX 20K is mature/legacy and is generally supported from distributor stock only - confirm long-term availability before new design-in.
Drop-in alternatives for EP20K400FC784-3 — 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 EP20K400FC784-3 (same form factor and footprint) — differing in Speed Grade, Package, Process Technology, Family, Mounting Type.
Quick Comparison Tool — Select alternative parts for side-by-side comparison:
EP20K400FC784-2
✅ Drop-In✓ In Stock
$175 / Unit
View Datasheet →EP20K400FC784-1
✅ Drop-In✓ In Stock
$92 / Unit
View Datasheet →EP20K400FC784-3 Maximum Ratings & Electrical Characteristics
| Family | APEX 20K (MultiCore) |
| Typical Gates | 400,000 |
| Maximum System Gates | 1,052,000 |
| Logic Elements | 21,168 |
| Maximum RAM Bits | 212,992 |
| Embedded System Blocks (ESBs) | 100 |
| PLLs | 4 |
| User I/O Pins | 488 |
| Package | 784-ball FineLine BGA (FC) |
| Speed Grade | -3 |
| Operating Temperature | Commercial (0°C to +85°C) |
| I/O Standards | MultiVolt I/O: 1.8V, 2.5V, 3.3V, 5.0V |
| Process Technology | 0.18 µm CMOS |
| Configuration Method | Serial or parallel, SRAM-based |
EP20K400FC784-3 784-ball fineline bga (fc) Pin Configuration Guide
Pin configuration for EP20K400FC784-3 (784-ball fineline bga (fc) 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 EP20K400FC784-3.
Refer to the datasheet for full pin configuration.
Typical Applications
EP20K400FC784-3 is suitable for 6 applications: Telecommunications Line Cards, ASIC Prototyping, Network Switches and Routers, DSP Co-Processing, Industrial Automation Controllers, Custom Peripheral and Bus Controllers.
Telecommunications Line Cards
The EP20K400FC784-3's combination of 400,000 typical gates, 488 user I/Os, MultiVolt I/O support (1.8V/2.5V/3.3V/5.0V), and 4 PLLs makes it well suited to telecommunications line card designs. The device can implement link-layer framing, cell/packet processing, traffic shaping, and HDLC controllers while bridging directly to backplane logic at 3.3V and to legacy 5V bus devices. With 100 ESBs providing 212,992 bits of embedded memory, designers can build wide FIFOs and CAM-adjacent lookup structures on-chip without external SRAM, reducing BOM cost and board area. The 784-ball FineLine BGA footprint supports the high pin density required for 32-bit+ parallel telecom buses.
Recommended
ASIC Prototyping
The EP20K400FC784-3 with up to 1,052,000 maximum system gates is widely used as an ASIC prototyping vehicle for designs in the 100k-800k gate range. MultiCore architecture lets designers map random control logic into the 21,168 LUT-based logic elements while placing wide datapaths, register files, and small memories into the 100 ESBs (212,992 bits). Speed grade -3 limits prototype timing validation to functional verification; for timing-critical validation, source speed grade -1 or -2 variants. Quartus II (legacy) supports the part for synthesis and fitting. BGA-784 supports the wide pin-out needed for ASIC emulation boards.
Recommended
Network Switches and Routers
The EP20K400FC784-3 is well matched to mid-range network switches and routers where its 488 user I/Os can connect to multiple Gigabit Ethernet PHYs, SERDES macros, and external TCAMs simultaneously. The 4 PLLs generate the multiple clock domains required by PHY-side clocks, switch-fabric clocks, and CPU bus interfaces, while MultiVolt I/O (1.8V/2.5V/3.3V/5.0V) bridges to mixed-voltage PHY and switch-fabric devices without external translators. Embedded memory (212,992 RAM bits across 100 ESBs) supports packet buffering, header parsing, and flow-control counters on-chip. Speed grade -3 is adequate for Gigabit Ethernet line-rate processing.
Recommended
DSP Co-Processing
The EP20K400FC784-3 is used as a co-processor to offload DSP-intensive tasks from host processors in radar, sonar, medical imaging, and software-defined radio systems. The 21,168 logic elements can implement FIR/IIR filters, FFT butterflies, and correlators in parallel, while the 100 ESBs provide 212,992 bits of on-chip memory for coefficient storage, delay lines, and small sample buffers. MultiVolt I/O simplifies interfacing to A/D and D/A converters running at 3.3V while connecting to 5V legacy DSP host buses. The 4 PLLs support the multiple sample-rate clocks required in multi-channel DSP systems.
Recommended
Industrial Automation Controllers
Industrial PLCs, motor controllers, and machine-vision front-ends benefit from the EP20K400FC784-3's high logic density (400,000 typical gates), wide I/O count (488 user I/Os), and MultiVolt I/O support. The device can implement multiple protocol stacks (Modbus, Profibus, EtherCAT) alongside motion-control loops and encoder interfaces, all on a single chip. Commercial temperature grade (0°C to +85°C) covers most indoor industrial environments. The legacy 0.18 µm process is well characterized and supported by long-lifecycle distributors, making it suitable for industrial products with 10+ year field life requirements.
Recommended
Custom Peripheral and Bus Controllers
The EP20K400FC784-3 implements custom peripheral controllers for legacy and proprietary bus architectures that standard microcontrollers cannot address. With 488 user I/Os, the device can drive wide parallel buses (16-/32-bit) and provide rich interrupt and DMA channels. MultiVolt I/O (1.8V/2.5V/3.3V/5.0V) interfaces directly to TTL, CMOS, and LVTTL peripherals without external level shifters. SRAM-based configuration allows in-system reconfiguration to repurpose the controller for different buses or protocols, useful in test equipment and instrumentation. Speed grade -3 is adequate for peripheral bus speeds up to tens of MHz.
Recommended
Recommended Products Summary
Engineering reference data for EP20K400FC784-3 — comparison, design guidance, and compliance information.
Selection Guide
Comparison with Alternatives
| Parameter | This Product | EP20K400FC784-2 | EP20K400FC784-1 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Package | 784-ball FineLine BGA (FC) | 784-ball FineLine BGA (FC) - same | 784-ball FineLine BGA (FC) - same |
| Brand | Intel (formerly Altera) | Intel (formerly Altera) | Intel (formerly Altera) |
| Speed Grade | -3 (slowest) | -2 (mid) | -1 (fastest) |
| Typical Gates | 400,000 | 400,000 | 400,000 |
| Logic Elements | 21,168 | 21,168 | 21,168 |
| User I/O Pins | 488 | 488 | 488 |
| RAM Bits | 212,992 | 212,992 | 212,992 |
| Lifecycle Status | Obsolete | Obsolete | Obsolete |
| PLLs | 4 | 4 | 4 |
Key Differentiators
- Drop-in speed-grade variants in same FC784 BGA package (vs EP20K400FC784-2 and EP20K400FC784-1)
- MultiVolt I/O supports 1.8V/2.5V/3.3V/5.0V without external translators (vs Single-voltage I/O FPGAs of the era)
- MultiCore architecture combines LUT logic with Embedded System Blocks (vs LUT-only FPGAs (e.g., older Flex series))
Design Notes
The EP20K400FC784-3 uses separate VCCINT (core) and VCCIO (I/O bank) supplies. Estimated: with all 488 I/O pins at 3.3V driving 10 MHz CMOS loads, I/O supply current can reach several hundred mA. Decouple each VCCIO bank with 0.1 µF ceramic + 10 µF tantalum close to the package, plus bulk capacitance on the PCB. VCCINT should follow Altera's APEX 20K reference design with multiple low-ESR decoupling capacitors and a quiet switching regulator (≤3% ripple) - core noise couples directly into PLL jitter.
Estimated: at full I/O utilization (~488 outputs switching at 50 MHz, 3.3V, 20 pF load) total device power dissipation is in the 3-6 W range. The 784-ball FineLine BGA package has a theta-JA of approximately 8-12 C/W with a 4-layer FR-4 PCB and thermal vias under the center balls - the center balls in FineLine BGA packages are thermal/ground balls that MUST be soldered to the PCB thermal pad with adequate via stitching. Without thermal vias, junction temperature can exceed 100°C even at moderate utilization.
FineLine BGA 784-ball packages have a 1.27 mm ball pitch with traces fanning out to escape the inner balls. Use 0.13 mm (5 mil) trace/space, microvia-in-pad or via-on-pad technology with 0.2-0.25 mm laser vias, and a minimum 8-layer stack-up for signal integrity. The center 4x4 ball array is the thermal/ground pad - stitch it with 0.3 mm thermal vias at 1.0-1.2 mm pitch on a filled-and-capped via structure to maximize heat transfer. Follow Intel/Altera's APEX 20K FineLine BGA layout reference design exactly.
Common pitfalls with the EP20K400FC784-3: (1) Do not confuse APEX 20K (suffix without 'E', 1.8V VCCINT) with APEX 20KE (suffix with 'E', 2.5V VCCINT) - they are NOT pin-compatible even with the same FC784 package. (2) Configuration data is SRAM-based, so the bitstream is lost on power-down - pair with a configuration PROM (e.g., EPC16) for non-volatile configuration. (3) Speed grade -3 is the slowest AC grade; for timing closure above ~80 MHz system clocks, use grade -1 or -2. (4) MSL rating requires dry-pack handling before reflow.
Compliance Information
RoHS / lead-free / MSL status not documented in verified web data; mark as [DATA_NEEDED]. AEC-Q100 not applicable - this is a commercial-grade FPGA. APEX 20K family pre-dates widespread AEC-Q100 adoption in FPGAs.
