[Cryptech Core] Speed grade differences in cost and performance

[Joachim Strömbergson]

Aloha!

On the F2F we talked about ways to improve performace by minor changes
to the current Alpha board. One of the ones discussed was the FPGA speed
grade.

We are currently using an Artix-7 T200 device with -1 speed grade. Even
though the tool supports it, at least for commercial or industrial rated
devices, the only other speed grade is -2.

Implementing the sha256 cores with the different speed grades:

-2 and 6ns target: 7.600ns
-1 and 6ns target: 9.351ns

About 18% better timing margin/performance.

The difference in price is quite small:

Industrial rated:
XC7A200T-2FBG484I: 256 USD
XC7A200T-1FBG484I: 222 USD

Commercial rated:
XC7A200T-2FBG484C: 222 USD
XC7A200T-1FBG484C: 193 USD

-- 
Med vänlig hälsning, Yours

Joachim Strömbergson
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                               Assured AB
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