Altera® HSMC
(High Speed - Mezzanine Card)

The Altera® HSMC defines electrical and mechanical properties of a high speed mezzanine card interface. This specification standardizes the way in which mezzanine cards communicate and connect to host boards. By taking advantage of the high- performance I/O features found in today’s FPGA devices, manufacturers can build a single mezzanine card that will then interface to multiple host boards. Similarly, they can build a host board that can leverage many different, pre-built, mezzanine cards.

The HSMC connectors defined by the specification are based on the 0.5mm pitch Q Strip® QSH/QTH series high speed board-to-board connectors from Samtec. The host board connector is Samtec part number ASP-122953-01 (a modified QSH series). The mezzanine card connector is Samtec part number ASP-122952-01 (a modified QTH series). These ASP connectors are partitioned into three “banks.” Bank 1 in each respective connector has every third signal pin removed to allow for multi-gigahertz differential signaling. Bank 2 and Bank 3 in each respective connector have the entire rows of signal pins filled for various single-ended interface signals. 

See the complete HSMC Specification from Altera for further information and recommendations for running both high-frequency and low speed interface signals within the various “banks."

The HSMC connectors can be purchased from Samtec by any customer to use in their own proprietary hardware design. Contact Pricing to request a quotation for these connectors:

• ASP-122952-01
• ASP-122953-01

Altera® Development Kits
Several Altera® development kits already feature host boards with the HSMC connectors. These host boards are often used by FPGA designers for prototyping their hardware designs. The benefit to customers is two-fold. First, a variety of mezzanine cards are being created by Altera® and other hardware providers. Second, customers can create their own HSMC solutions and then interface those custom mezzanine cards to several different FPGA host boards.

Altera® Development Kits that support HSMC

Arria® II GX FPGA Development Kit
Stratix® IV GX FPGA Development Kit
Audio Video Development Kit, Stratix® IV GX Edition
Cyclone® III FPGA Development Kit
DSP Development Kit, Cyclone® III Edition
Altera Embedded Systems Development Kit, Cyclone® III Edition
DSP Development Kit, Stratix® III Edition
The Stratix III FPGA Development Kit
Terasic DE3 System, Stratix III Edition
For a complete listing of Altera daughter cards to expand the functionality of other development platforms, including those which utilize the HSMC Specification, go to: www.altera.com/products/devkits/kit-daughter_boards.jsp

Samtec Final Inch® PCB Design Tools
Break Out Region (BOR) PCB designs that save design, development and validation time and resources and predict real-world performance expectations in real world signal integrity applications.

• SE banks
• DP bank
• Overview

Samtec High Speed Cable Solutions
Samtec offers a few standard lengths of High Data Rate cables for customer hardware applications, which use the HSMC connectors and need a high speed cable. Contact the TLS Group for technical information and the Pricing Group to request a quotation.

• HDR-131992-XX-HQDP

Samtec also offers a high speed coax SMA breakout cable for observation of the differential signal channels on a test instrument. Contact the TLS Group for technical information and the Pricing Group to request a quotation.

• HDR-128291-XX

NOTE: The HDR-128291-XX breakout assembly is suitable to test the signal pins of each bank individually.  This is assuming the customer has the socket ASP-122953-01(a modified QSH series) on their board since the cable assembly has the terminal ASP-122952-01 (a modified QTH series).  

Also, note that in Bank 1 of ASP-122953-01, every third pin is omitted for pair separation and is an exact match to the pinout of the connector on the HDR-128291-XX assembly.   Banks 2 & 3 on ASP-122953-01 are laid out with the signals on the matching pins to mate to the HDR-128291-XX cable, however every third power pin would be a "No Connect" when the cable is mated.

General Information
For more information contact Altera® at http://www.altera.com

or more information on Samtec's variety of test products available:
Flip through our Altera - Silicon Test, Development and OEM Hardware eGuide or click here
to download a PDF version or contact Samtec’s Reference Design Group.