So I'm designing a board based off the Cyclone III Starter Board and in there, there's a large, fancy DC-DC used for the DDR power. Is this necessary? Can I power my DDR using a normal LDO for 2.5v and a voltage reference at 1.25?
Use the datasheet for the DDR2 component you are going to place on the board to get an estimate of how much power you are going to consume. Then you can figure out what you need. Don't cut corners on the reference voltage, it needs to be solid.
