7.5  Altera MAX 9000

Figure 7.9 shows the Altera MAX 9000 interconnect architecture. The size of the MAX 9000 LAB arrays varies between 4 ¥ 5 (rows ¥ columns) for the EPM9320 and 7 ¥ 5 for the EPM9560. The MAX 9000 is an extremely coarse-grained architecture, typical of complex PLDs, but the LABs themselves have a finer structure. Sometimes we say that complex PLDs with arrays (LABs in the Altera MAX family) that are themselves arrays (of macrocells) have a dual-grain architecture .

FIGURE 7.9  The Altera MAX 9000 interconnect scheme. (a)  A 4 ¥ 5 array of Logic Array Blocks (LABs), the same size as the EMP9400 chip. (b) A simplified block diagram of the interconnect architecture showing the connection of the FastTrack buses to a LAB.

In Figure 7.9 (b), boxes A, B, and C represent the interconnection between the FastTrack buses and the 16 macrocells in each LAB:

• Box A connects a macrocell to one row channel.
• Box B connects three column channels to two row channels.
• Box C connects a macrocell to three column channels.

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