5CSXC4 vs M2S050
A comparison of the Altera Cyclone V 5CSXC4 and the Microchip SmartFusion2 M2S050 using the data from both vendors' selection guides.
Side-by-side specifications
| 5CSXC4 | M2S050 | |
|---|---|---|
| Vendor / family | Altera Cyclone V | Microchip SmartFusion2 |
| LUTs as published | 15,880 ALMs | 56,340 LUT4 |
| LUT type | adaptive logic module: fracturable 8-input LUT (one 6-input or two independent 4-input functions) | 4-input look-up table |
| LUT4 equivalent (approx.) | ≈31,760 | ≈56,340 |
| CoreScore (SERV cores) | — | — |
| Vendor logic figure | 40,000 LE | 56,340 LE |
| DSP | 84 variable-precision DSP blocks | 72 18×18 math blocks (MACC) |
| Block RAM | 2.6 Mb | 1.2 Mb |
| Large RAM | — | — |
| Max. user I/O | 145 | 377 |
| Transceivers | 6 × XCVR 3.125 Gb/s | 8 × SERDES 5 Gb/s |
| Hard PCI Express | Gen1 | Gen2 |
| Hard processor | 2× Arm Cortex-A9 | 1× Arm Cortex-M3 |
| Process | 28 nm | 65 nm |
| Configuration memory | SRAM | Non-volatile (flash) |
| Packages | 1 | 4 |
| Design tool | Altera Quartus Prime | Microchip Libero SoC |
Highlighted values are higher. LUT counts are shown as published; the LUT4 equivalent is an approximation to compare different LUT types, see how FPGA vendors count logic. Add up to two more devices to this comparison.
Key differences
The M2S050 has about 77% more logic capacity (56.3K vs 31.8K LUT4 equivalents).
They use different logic architectures: the 5CSXC4 is built from ALMs and the M2S050 from LUT4, so the raw LUT counts (15.9K vs 56.3K) are not directly comparable.
For arithmetic, the 5CSXC4 has 84 variable-precision DSP blocks against 72 18×18 math blocks (MACC) on the M2S050.
The 5CSXC4 has more on-chip memory (2.6 Mb vs 1.2 Mb).
Both have transceivers: 6 at up to 3.125 Gb/s on the 5CSXC4 and 8 at up to 5 Gb/s on the M2S050.
Configuration memory: sram on the 5CSXC4, non-volatile (flash) on the M2S050.
The 5CSXC4 is designed with Altera Quartus Prime and the M2S050 with Microchip Libero SoC.
Full specifications
See the complete spec sheets with packages and grades: 5CSXC4 (Cyclone V) and M2S050 (SmartFusion2).