EP2A25B652C8 - Altera APEX II FPGA, 25K LE, BGA-652 | Intel FPGA
MPN: EP2A25B652C8 ⚠ Last Time Buy| Qty | Unit Price | Extended |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | $285 | $285.00 |
| 10 | $268 | $2,680.00 |
| 100 | $245 | $24,500.00 |
| 500 | $220 | $110,000.00 |
| 1,000 | $198 | $198,000.00 |
EP2A25B652C8 Overview
An FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array) is a programmable logic device whose interconnect and logic resources are configured by the user after manufacture. In the system hierarchy, FPGAs sit between microcontrollers (fixed-function) and ASICs (custom silicon), offering high logic density, parallel DSP capability, and reconfigurable I/O. The APEX II family specifically targets high-bandwidth datapath, telecommunications, and DSP applications that benefit from dedicated multipliers, embedded memory, and multi-gigabit LVDS I/O.
Key features include embedded system blocks (ESBs) implementing dual-port RAM, ROM, and CAM, dedicated hardware multipliers for DSP, four PLLs for clock management, and high-speed LVDS I/O pairs supporting DDR memory interfaces. The device supports multiple I/O standards including LVTTL, LVCMOS, SSTL, and HSTL, enabling direct interface to modern memory and bus architectures. Configuration is supported via passive serial, passive parallel, and JTAG modes, with optional configuration via Altera EPC configuration devices.
Architecturally, APEX II combines the MultiCore architecture of APEX 20KE with additional embedded memory bandwidth and enhanced I/O capability. The lookup-table based logic elements (LEs) feed into MegaLAB structures that contain ESBs and continuous LEs-to-ESB interconnect, allowing efficient implementation of wide datapaths. The hardware multiplier blocks accelerate FIR filters and FFT computations without consuming general-purpose logic.
Typical applications include telecommunications infrastructure (multi-channel basestation DSP, SONET/SDH framer backplanes), high-speed networking line cards, video broadcast equipment (HD-SDI routing, MPEG processing), and military/aerospace signal processing. The -8 speed grade and BGA-652 package make this device particularly suited to high-density backplane designs where hundreds of signal pins and several hundred I/Os are required.
When designing with the EP2A25B652C8, plan for a multi-layer PCB with continuous power and ground planes under the BGA. The Quartus II design suite (or later Intel Quartus Prime) supports this device, but newer tool versions are recommended for productivity. Decoupling must follow Altera's APEX II pin connection guidelines: every VCCINT and VCCIO pin must have a dedicated decoupling capacitor with short traces to the ground plane.
This page consolidates distributor stock, exact-package drop-in alternatives, and engineering guidance specific to the EP2A25B652C8 that are not available on any single distributor or datasheet page.
Drop-in alternatives for EP2A25B652C8 — 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 EP2A25B652C8 (same form factor and footprint) — differing in Logic Elements, Process Technology, Operating Temperature, Package, Speed Grade.
Quick Comparison Tool — Select alternative parts for side-by-side comparison:
EP2A25B652C7
✅ Drop-In✓ In Stock
$285 / Unit
View Datasheet →EP2A25B652C9
✅ Drop-In✓ In Stock
$105 / Unit
View Datasheet →EP2A25F672C8
✅ Drop-In✓ In Stock
$951.18 / Unit
View Datasheet →EP2A15B652C8
✅ Drop-In✓ In Stock
$99.5 / Unit
View Datasheet →EP2A25B724C8
✅ Drop-In📋 Reference alternative (not in catalog)
EP2A25B652C8 Maximum Ratings & Electrical Characteristics
| Series | APEX II |
| Family | APEX II (EP2A25) |
| Package | BGA-652 (FineLine BGA) |
| Pin/Ball Count | 652 |
| Speed Grade | -8 |
| Operating Temperature | 0C to +85C (Commercial) |
| Process Technology | 0.15-micron CMOS |
| Embedded Memory | Embedded System Blocks (ESBs) - dual-port RAM, ROM, CAM |
| Hardware Multipliers | Yes (dedicated DSP blocks) |
| LVDS Support | Yes (multi-gigabit LVDS pairs) |
| Configuration Modes | Passive Serial, Passive Parallel, JTAG |
| I/O Standards | LVTTL, LVCMOS, SSTL, HSTL |
| Mounting Type | Surface Mount (BGA) |
EP2A25B652C8 bga-652 (fineline bga) Pin Configuration Guide
Pin configuration for EP2A25B652C8 (bga-652 (fineline bga) 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 EP2A25B652C8.
Refer to the datasheet for full pin configuration.
Typical Applications
EP2A25B652C8 is suitable for 6 applications: Telecommunications Backplane DSP, Video Broadcast and HD-SDI Routing, High-Speed Networking Line Cards, Military and Aerospace Signal Processing, Industrial Automation and Machine Vision, Test and Measurement Instrumentation.
Telecommunications Backplane DSP
The EP2A25B652C8 fits telecommunications backplane DSP applications because its ~25K logic elements, dedicated hardware multipliers, and embedded system blocks (ESBs) implement multi-channel FIR filters, FFT cores, and channelizers in parallel. Its 652-ball BGA exposes hundreds of user I/Os to LVDS-based backplane transceivers, enabling direct connection to SONET/SDH framer ASICs and TDM bus interfaces. The -8 speed grade supports clock rates typical of OC-48/STM-16 datapaths, and embedded RAM blocks reduce external SRAM requirements. According to APEX II reference designs, this device commonly implements baseband processing and channel aggregation in 3G/4G infrastructure.
Recommended
Video Broadcast and HD-SDI Routing
The EP2A25B652C8 is well-suited to HD-SDI routing and video broadcast preprocessing because its LVDS-capable I/O directly interfaces with SMPTE 292M serializers/deserializers, and the 652-ball BGA provides sufficient pins for multi-channel video crosspoint switching. Embedded multipliers accelerate color-space conversion (RGB to YCbCr) and scaling filters, while ESBs implement line buffers and frame stores without external memory in many designs. The -8 speed grade handles 1.485 Gbps HD-SDI data rates when paired with external cable equalizers and reclockers. Reference designs from Altera document 8x8 HD-SDI crosspoint switches in this device family.
Recommended
High-Speed Networking Line Cards
The EP2A25B652C8 serves high-speed networking line cards (e.g., 10G Ethernet and OC-192) because its LVDS I/O pairs and PLLs provide the multi-gigabit serial capability required for SPI-4.2 (POS-PHY Level 4) interfaces to network processors. The APEX II MultiCore architecture with embedded system blocks enables packet header inspection and queue management, while hardware multipliers accelerate encryption and QoS classification. The 652-ball BGA exposes enough I/O for multi-port SGMII and SPI-4.2 interfaces in parallel. Designs typically use the device for traffic management offload alongside a network processor unit (NPU).
Recommended
Military and Aerospace Signal Processing
The EP2A25B652C8 in BGA-652 packaging supports military signal processing applications such as radar preprocessing, electronic warfare (EW) channelization, and software-defined radio (SDR) baseband processing. Its hardware multipliers enable parallel FFT and correlation computations, while embedded RAM blocks implement windowing buffers and matched-filter coefficient storage. The commercial 0C to +85C temperature grade covers ground-mobile deployments; for harsher environments designers should screen lot-by-lot or migrate to a ruggedized variant. Per APEX II literature, this device has been designed into avionics databus interfaces and SIGINT receiver front-ends.
Recommended
Industrial Automation and Machine Vision
The EP2A25B652C8 fits industrial machine vision systems because its high logic density and embedded multipliers enable real-time image processing pipelines (filtering, edge detection, blob analysis) at camera frame rates. The 652-ball BGA exposes many LVDS pairs to interface directly with Camera Link or Channel Link image sensors, while ESBs implement line-scan buffers. The -8 speed grade handles multi-megapixel camera throughput when paired with external DDR memory controllers. Industrial designs benefit from the device's deterministic latency and parallel datapath capability, which simplify synchronization with motion controllers and PLCs.
Recommended
Test and Measurement Instrumentation
The EP2A25B652C8 is used in high-end test and measurement equipment such as logic analyzers, protocol analyzers, and arbitrary waveform generators because its parallel logic resources enable multi-channel state capture, pattern generation, and DSP-based signal conditioning. Hardware multipliers accelerate FFT-based spectrum analysis and digital filtering, while ESBs implement deep capture buffers and look-up tables for waveform synthesis. The 652-ball BGA exposes enough I/O for multi-channel simultaneous sampling systems. Designers pair this FPGA with high-speed ADCs/DACs and benefit from APEX II's deterministic timing for triggering and synchronization.
Recommended
Recommended Products Summary
Engineering reference data for EP2A25B652C8 — comparison, design guidance, and compliance information.
Selection Guide
Comparison with Alternatives
| Parameter | This Product | EP2A25B652C7 | EP2A25B652C9 | EP2A15B652C8 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brand | Altera | Altera | Altera | Altera |
| Package | BGA-652 | BGA-652 (same) | BGA-652 (same) | BGA-652 (same) |
| Speed Grade | -8 | -7 (faster) | -9 (slower) | -8 (same) |
| Temperature Grade | Commercial (0C to +85C) | Commercial (same) | Commercial (same) | Commercial (same) |
| Family | APEX II | APEX II (same) | APEX II (same) | APEX II (same) |
| Logic Elements (approx) | ~25K LE | ~25K LE (same) | ~25K LE (same) | ~16K LE (-36%) |
| Lifecycle Status | Last Time Buy | Last Time Buy | Last Time Buy | Last Time Buy |
| Software Support | Quartus II 9.1 or earlier | Quartus II 9.1 or earlier (same) | Quartus II 9.1 or earlier (same) | Quartus II 9.1 or earlier (same) |
Key Differentiators
- Speed-grade upgrade path within identical footprint (vs EP2A25B652C7)
- Higher logic density than same-package EP2A15B652C8 (vs EP2A15B652C8)
- APEX II architecture with hardware multipliers and ESBs (vs EP20K600EBC652 (APEX 20KE predecessor))
Design Notes
The EP2A25B652C8 652-ball FineLine BGA requires a multi-layer PCB (typically 6 to 10 layers) with continuous power and ground planes directly under the device. Every VCCINT and VCCIO pin must have a dedicated 0.1 uF decoupling capacitor with via stubs shorter than 50 mils to the ground plane. Add 10 uF bulk capacitors adjacent to each power-supply pin region. Follow the Altera APEX II Pin Connection Guidelines to tie nCONFIG, nSTATUS, CONF_DONE, and MSEL pins correctly for the desired configuration mode.
Estimated: at 1.5 W static + 2 W dynamic dissipation and 35 C/W theta_JA (BGA-652 FineLine, no heatsink), the junction temperature rises approximately 122C above ambient. With commercial 0C to +85C operation, ambient must remain below approximately -37C which is impossible - so a heatsink, thermal pad, or forced airflow is mandatory. For high-utilization designs, thermal simulation with the Altera PowerPlay Power Estimator is recommended before PCB layout.
Do not attempt to program the EP2A25B652C8 with Intel Quartus Prime version 10.0 or later - APEX II device support was removed in newer toolchains. Use Altera Quartus II Service Pack 2 version 9.1 (the last release with full APEX II support) and legacy programming hardware (USB-Blaster, ByteBlaster II, or EthernetBlaster). Configuration bitstreams generated for the -8 speed grade cannot be loaded into -7 or -9 devices without re-compilation.
The APEX II LVDS I/O pairs require 100-ohm differential impedance routing with matched trace lengths (within 10 mils) on adjacent layers referenced to a continuous ground plane. Keep LVDS traces away from switching power supply nodes by at least 3W (3x trace width). Use series termination resistors (33-50 ohm) close to the FPGA transmit pins and AC-coupling capacitors near the receiver end of multi-gigabit LVDS links to prevent DC bias accumulation.
EP2A25B652C8 is in Last Time Buy (LTB) status. Plan a board-level redesign to a Cyclone V E (5CEFA7F31I7N) or Arria II GZ (EP2AGX125) for new production. Existing designs in service should stock enough units to cover the expected support lifetime (typically 7-10 years for industrial/military programs). Inventory brokers such as those listed in our data sources may carry remaining stock after LTB closure, but pricing typically increases 2-5x versus authorized distributor last-buy pricing.
Compliance Information
Compliance status for APEX II BGA parts varies by date code and ball finish. Engineers should request material declaration sheets from the distributor for the specific lot before using in RoHS or REACH restricted end products. AEC-Q100 does not apply - this is a commercial/industrial FPGA, not an automotive-grade IC.
