FPGA Core Voltages

03-29-2012 | by fizzisist

In the last couple weeks, we've been experimenting with different FPGA core voltages (VCCINT). Our measurements have shown that on most rev3 boards, performance can be increased significantly by slightly increasing this voltage. Because of this, all rev3 boards starting today will be shipped with VCCINT set to 1.23V (instead of the original 1.20V). This applies to all boards shipped on or after 3/29/2012.

While this increases the board's power consumption slightly (data here), it also increases the potential limit on clock rate, which is especially useful with the new "overclocker" bitstreams.

If anyone would like to increase the core voltages on an older board, it simply means swapping two resistors (R2 and R8). You can either attempt this yourself or send it back to us and we'll do the work free of charge. We only ask that you pay the return shipping charge.