Regarding selection of appropriate board for application development

[Altera_Forum]

I would like to have suggestion from Altera users regarding the most appropriate board to select for my task of DSP and real time image processing development application. I have been suggested with Stratix V board, but i am not very much sure about the widespread use of this board by the community. Would it be a good choice as compared to Zynq series of Xilinx?

[Altera_Forum]

Stratix V vs Zynq isn't really a good comparison 

 Stratix V is a high end FPGA family, Zynq is mid-range or lower end, but includes a dual ARM Cortex A9  Stratix V is a competitor to a Virtex 7, a Cyclone/Arria V SoC is a competitor to a Zynq  so you'll have two main choices: Altera or Xilinx and high performance or hard ARM

[Altera_Forum]

I agree with thepancake.. 

 It really depends on your requirements and company preferences.  Are you expecting to use the Arm9 processor? If so, realize that neither the Zync or Cyclone/Arria SOC devices have a hard video interface. This is both good and bad. Good is, you can get softcores or design your own if it's your goal, Bad: It takes up lots of FPGA fabric to do video the basic video processing..  One good method is if you have an external processor that has the basic video processing engines, then you make the device a PCIe device, and pass the video back and forth this way.  The Next question is how big and how fast must your logic run. The like pancake said the Zynq and Cyclone5 SOC/Arria SOC are midrange devices. They have dual 800+ MHz A9's but the fpga fabric is not as fast as the Stratix V. The Stratix V also can provide many more gates than the current generation of SOC based FPGA's.  Having done video engines in both Altera and Xilinx families, it can be done in either, but your requirements really push the final decision. If any of the above will work for you then the end of the day conclusion, may be who do you think you can get the best support from.  My personal experience has been I get the best support from Altera, but I know larger Tier 1 customers I deal with have in the past said they get better support from Xilinx. Of course a lot of this has to do with how big of an account your are. Altera seems to help the little guys out better. Where Xilinx focuses it support on the Tier 1 guys.   Pete

[Altera_Forum]

In that case, the query boils down to whether to use Stratix V or Virtex 7. I need to make a decision for the same, whether to go for Altera or Xiliinx, but is nable to make decision. The parameters being looked are fast performance, better hardware interfacibility and good support to technical queries when needed.

[Altera_Forum]

On the support side, don't forget to use your distribution channels FAE's as well. Here, we have a close relationship with the Arrow team, and use the Arrow Altera FAE as a support resource, who has been helpful at pushing issue through the factory when needed. 

 Pete

[Altera_Forum]

Does it mean, that altera will never come into picture for direct support, and we have to wait for a third party vendor who may or may not find time to support the customer. I really find it risky. Can somebody share their experience, between Altera and Xilinx.

[Altera_Forum]

No. It all depends on what level of customer you are for both Altera and Xilinx: 

 If you are a Tier one Customer both will provide direct FAE support. If you are a little guy, outside the Bay Area like myself, your first line is the Altera mysupport or xilinx support web interfaces. Which for both is varied in how good it is based on who your get. With Altera, Arrow also has their own FAE's to support for you. (With Xilinx it's Avnet). Unless it's a common issue they may or may not be able to directly support you, but they are another resource with a backdoor into the factory support structure. So they can and will push your issue thorough the support hierarchy.  My experience has been for a small company, this works better with Altera. I'm part owner of a contract house that has both large and small customers. Some customers are ALL Altera, some are ALL Xilinx. I personally like the Altera tools better, and have better luck with their support. But that being said the Zynq caught Altera flat footed, and they lost many designs because they were in market first with a good SOC design platform. Altera has now caught up, but they were late to the game.  Xilinx seems to be strong in the Tier1 space, because they put more focus there.  Tools side, QSYS beats the pants off of the Xilinx tools for SOC integration, and SignalTap is much easier to integrate that ChipScope for debugging. But Altera still has nothing to compare to FPGA editor for fixing or debugging minor issues by hand. (Especially handy if you have multi-day build times on a large design)  Pete