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Obsolete device

XA3S1500 replacement options

The AMD Xilinx XA3S1500 has been discontinued by the manufacturer. There are two ways forward, and for most people reading this the first one is the answer: keep the design and source the part. Changing device means a board revision, so it is only worth it if you are redesigning anyway.

What the manufacturer says

AMD Xilinx's discontinuation notice lists no direct replacement for 1 XA3S1500 part. Where the manufacturer offers nothing equivalent, the remaining supply is the only way to keep the board unchanged.

From the manufacturer's discontinuation notice: Product Discontinuation Notice for XC9500XL, CoolRunner XPLA 3, CoolRunner II, Spartan II,

1. Keep the design — source the XA3S1500

Discontinued parts are still traded. We hold 2 orderable XA3S1500 parts — send the exact code and quantity and we'll come back with stock and pricing, including date-code and traceability requirements.

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Part numberPackagePinsSpeedTemperature
XA3S1500-4FGG456IFGG4564564Industrial
XA3S1500-4FGG676IFGG6766764Industrial

A different package or speed grade of the same device is the closest thing to a like-for-like change: the silicon is the same, so only the footprint or timing differs. It still needs checking against your board.

2. Redesigning? Current devices of similar capacity

AMD Xilinx devices still in production with comparable logic capacity, closest first. These are a shortlist to evaluate, not equivalents: none of them is pin-compatible with the XA3S1500, and none is recommended by the manufacturer as its successor. We select them by capacity from the data on this site.

DeviceFamilyLogic cellsvs XA3S1500Block RAMDSPParts
XA3S1500Spartan-329,952The original576 Kb2
XC7A35TArtix-733,2801.1× the logic cells1,800 Kb9028
XA7A35TArtix-733,2801.1× the logic cells1,800 Kb6
XCSU35PSpartan UltraScale+35,7001.2× the logic cells1,728 Kb487
XC7A50TArtix-752,1601.7× the logic cells2,700 Kb12030
XC7S50Spartan-752,1601.7× the logic cells2,700 Kb12015
XA7A50TArtix-752,1601.7× the logic cells2,700 Kb8

What to check before changing device

  • Footprint and pinout

    Ball count, pitch and pin assignment all differ between families. A new device means a new layout.

  • I/O voltages and banks

    Supported I/O standards, bank voltages and the number of banks change between generations.

  • Core and I/O supplies

    Newer devices usually run a lower core voltage and need a different power tree.

  • Configuration

    Flash type, configuration mode and boot timing are family-specific.

  • Tools and IP

    The design has to be rebuilt in the current toolchain, and IP cores may need replacing or re-licensing.

  • Temperature and lifetime

    Check the grade you need exists, and how long the new family is expected to stay in production.

Where a design cannot be revised — certified equipment, long-life industrial and defence builds — sourcing the original is normally the cheaper route, even at obsolete pricing.

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