The XCKU115-3FLVA1517C is AMD Xilinx’s flagship Kintex® UltraScale™ FPGA, engineered for demanding high-performance applications that require the best possible logic density, DSP throughput, and transceiver bandwidth in a mid-range cost-optimized device. Built on a 20nm process node with Stacked Silicon Interconnect (SSI) technology, this device represents the top of the XCKU115 speed grade lineup — the -3 grade delivers the highest clock frequencies and fastest switching performance available in the Kintex UltraScale family.

Whether you are designing 100G networking infrastructure, high-resolution medical imaging systems, advanced radar processing, or next-generation wireless base stations, the XCKU115-3FLVA1517C delivers the raw performance and flexibility to meet those requirements. For a broader portfolio of programmable logic solutions, explore the full range of Xilinx FPGA devices available.

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What Is the XCKU115-3FLVA1517C?

The XCKU115-3FLVA1517C is a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) from AMD Xilinx’s Kintex UltraScale series. It belongs to the XCKU115 device family — the largest member of the Kintex UltraScale lineup — featuring over 1.45 million system logic cells fabricated on a 20nm planar process. The “-3” suffix designates the highest speed grade in this family, making it the ideal choice when maximum timing performance is a hard requirement.

The “FLVA1517” portion of the part number denotes the 1517-ball Fine Line BGA package in the low-voltage “A” variant, and the final “C” indicates a commercial temperature range (0°C to 100°C junction temperature).

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XCKU115-3FLVA1517C Key Specifications

The table below summarizes the primary technical specifications for the XCKU115-3FLVA1517C:

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XCKU115-3FLVA1517C Part Number Decoder

Understanding the part number naming convention helps engineers quickly identify the correct variant for their design:

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Logic and DSP Resources

High-Density Logic Fabric

The XCKU115-3FLVA1517C contains 1,451,100 system logic cells organized into 663,360 Configurable Logic Blocks (CLBs). Each CLB consists of eight 6-input Look-Up Tables (LUTs) and sixteen flip-flops, providing a highly flexible fabric for implementing complex control logic, state machines, and datapath operations. The UltraScale architecture introduces ASIC-like routing with a reduced number of routing stages compared to previous 7 Series FPGAs, which translates directly to better timing closure and higher effective utilization rates.

DSP Performance and Signal Processing

With 5,520 DSP48E2 slices, the XCKU115-3FLVA1517C is one of the most DSP-dense mid-range FPGAs available. Each DSP48E2 slice contains a 27×18-bit multiplier, a 48-bit accumulator, and pre-adder logic, enabling cascaded filter chains, FFT pipelines, matrix operations, and floating-point arithmetic with minimal fabric resource usage. Collectively, these DSP slices deliver up to 8.2 TeraMACs of raw compute performance — a critical figure for applications in radar, medical imaging, and machine learning acceleration.

Block RAM and Memory Architecture

The device integrates 75.9 Mb of Block RAM distributed across hundreds of 36-Kb RAMB36 tiles, each configurable as one 36-Kb or two independent 18-Kb memories. True dual-port access allows simultaneous read/write from two independent clock domains, which is essential for bridging data between high-speed interfaces and processing engines. The UltraScale architecture also includes UltraRAM (URAM) in the UltraScale+ generation; while the base XCKU115 device leverages Block RAM, the high ratio of BRAM-to-logic makes it well-suited for buffering and lookup-intensive designs.

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Transceiver and High-Speed I/O Capabilities

GTH Multi-Gigabit Transceivers

The XCKU115-3FLVA1517C integrates 64 GTH (Gigabit Transceiver High-performance) channels, each capable of operating at serial data rates from 500 Mb/s up to 16.375 Gb/s. These transceivers support a broad range of serial protocols including PCIe Gen3, 10GBASE-R, 40GbE, 100GbE (using four lanes), CPRI, JESD204B, Aurora, and custom protocols. The transceivers incorporate built-in 8B/10B, 64B/66B, and 64B/67B encoding/decoding, and include advanced equalization circuitry to reliably handle backplane, cable, and optical transceiver interconnects with high loss.

PCI Express Gen3 Hard IP

The device contains multiple integrated PCIe® Gen3 hard blocks, capable of operating at up to ×8 lane widths with peak throughput exceeding 64 Gb/s aggregate. Hard PCIe IP significantly reduces resource consumption, lowers latency, and simplifies timing closure compared to soft-IP implementations. This is especially beneficial in FPGA-based accelerator cards, smart NICs, and PCIe-attached co-processor designs.

User I/O and Memory Interfaces

High-Performance (HP) I/O banks support voltage levels from 1.0V to 1.8V and provide the fastest switching performance. High-Range (HR) I/O banks support voltages from 1.2V to 3.3V, enabling direct interfacing with legacy logic families and a wide variety of sensors and peripherals.

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Clock Management and Timing

The XCKU115-3FLVA1517C provides a rich clocking architecture with multiple Mixed-Mode Clock Managers (MMCMs) and Phase-Locked Loops (PLLs) distributed throughout the fabric. MMCMs support fine-grained phase adjustment, frequency synthesis, and dynamic reconfiguration — enabling designs that require adaptive clocking or dynamic power management. PLLs offer lower jitter for clock multiplication and division tasks. The UltraScale architecture’s clock region structure minimizes clock skew across the device, and combined with the -3 speed grade, enables maximum operating frequencies that are the highest available in the Kintex UltraScale family.

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Power and Thermal Characteristics

Supply Voltages

Power Efficiency

Despite its high logic density, the 20nm TSMC process provides significant power efficiency gains. The XCKU115-3FLVA1517C delivers up to 40% lower power consumption versus equivalent prior-generation (28nm) FPGAs at comparable performance levels. Fine-grained clock gating throughout the UltraScale architecture allows unused portions of the fabric to be powered down dynamically during operation, further reducing active power. The Xilinx Power Estimator (XPE) tool is recommended for accurate power budgeting during the design phase.

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Supported Applications

The XCKU115-3FLVA1517C is optimally suited for the following demanding application domains:

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Development Tools and Ecosystem

Vivado Design Suite

The XCKU115-3FLVA1517C is fully supported by the AMD Vivado® Design Suite, Xilinx’s industry-standard FPGA development environment. Vivado provides synthesis, place-and-route, timing analysis, simulation, and programming tools optimized for the UltraScale architecture. The tool suite includes intelligent design rule checking specifically tuned for UltraScale devices, accelerating design closure even at high device utilization.

IP Catalog and Reference Designs

AMD Xilinx provides an extensive library of validated IP cores compatible with the XCKU115-3FLVA1517C, including PCIe DMA controllers, 100G Ethernet MACs, JESD204B transceivers, DDR4 memory controllers, and floating-point processing units. Reference designs for common use cases are available through the Xilinx IP catalog and GitHub repositories, dramatically reducing development time.

Configuration and Programming

The device supports multiple configuration modes to match different system architectures:

• JTAG — Direct configuration for development and debug
• Master SPI (Quad-SPI) — Fast configuration from external flash memory
• Slave SelectMAP — Parallel configuration for production systems
• Slave Serial — Simple daisy-chain configuration

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XCKU115-3FLVA1517C vs. Other XCKU115 Speed Grades

The XCKU115 is available in multiple speed grades. The table below shows how the -3 speed grade compares:

The -3 speed grade is recommended when maximum throughput is a non-negotiable requirement and system power budget can accommodate the higher dynamic power of the fastest speed grade.

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Ordering and Compliance Information

Note: The XCKU115-3FLVA1517C is a Non-Cancellable, Non-Returnable (NCNR) component at most distributors due to its high-complexity, custom-programmed nature. Verify lead times and stock availability before finalizing design commitments.

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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

What is the XCKU115-3FLVA1517C?

The XCKU115-3FLVA1517C is a high-performance FPGA from AMD Xilinx’s Kintex UltraScale family. It features 1,451,100 system logic cells, 5,520 DSP slices, 64 GTH transceivers, and 624 user I/O pins in a 1517-ball FCBGA package. The “-3” speed grade represents the highest performance tier of the XCKU115 device.

What is the difference between XCKU115-3FLVA1517C and XCKU115-1FLVA1517C?

Both devices share the same silicon and package but differ in speed grade. The -3 grade has been characterized and guaranteed to meet tighter timing specifications (higher maximum frequency, lower propagation delays) compared to the -1 grade. The -3 part is appropriate for designs that cannot meet timing closure on a -1 or -2 device.

What package does the XCKU115-3FLVA1517C use?

It uses a 1517-ball Flip-Chip Ball Grid Array (FCBGA) package with a 45mm × 45mm footprint, designated as FLVA1517 in the AMD Xilinx naming convention.

Is the XCKU115-3FLVA1517C supported in Vivado?

Yes. The XCKU115-3FLVA1517C is fully supported in AMD Vivado Design Suite and is compatible with all production releases of Vivado from version 2014.3 onwards.

What transceiver speed does the XCKU115-3FLVA1517C support?

The 64 integrated GTH transceivers support serial data rates from 500 Mb/s up to 16.375 Gb/s per lane, making the device suitable for 10G, 25G, 40G, and 100G networking applications.

What is the operating temperature range of the XCKU115-3FLVA1517C?

The “C” suffix indicates a commercial temperature range: 0°C to +100°C junction temperature.

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Summary

The XCKU115-3FLVA1517C is AMD Xilinx’s highest-performance variant of the largest Kintex UltraScale device, combining massive logic density, class-leading DSP compute throughput, 64 multi-gigabit transceivers, and a proven 20nm process technology in a production-ready 1517-ball FCBGA package. Its -3 speed grade makes it the definitive choice for engineers who need maximum clock performance in 100G networking, data center, radar, medical, and 5G wireless designs. Combined with the Vivado Design Suite and AMD Xilinx’s extensive IP ecosystem, the XCKU115-3FLVA1517C accelerates development while delivering the performance margins that mission-critical applications demand.