Actel ProASICPLUS FPGAs Chosen by Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute for Low-Power, High-Reliability Operation
Actel's Live-at-Power-Up, Single-Chip Flash-Based FPGAs Provide Significant
Benefits to Advanced Ocean Seismic Research Equipment
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., December 13, 2004 —
Actel Corporation
(Nasdaq: ACTL) today announced that the company's flash-based field-programmable
gate arrays (FPGAs) were chosen by the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research
Institute (MBARI) for use in its advanced underwater seismograph. The
MBARI seismographs are located on the floor of Monterey Bay, where they
use analog sensors to capture data, which is then stored on a hard disk
drive. MBARI will utilize Actel's ProASICPLUS devices to handle
a host of important functions in the underwater seismograph, including
digital filtering of the ADC (analog-to-digital converter) signals and
serving as the DMA (direct memory access) engine and the parallel IDE
interface for the system's hard disk drive. Actel's single-chip ProASICPLUS devices
were chosen for their low-power operation and high reliability, which
enable higher performance and a greater product lifespan for the MBARI
seismographs.
"Our seismographs exist in an extremely harsh environment, at depths
of several thousand feet, and cannot be serviced. Therefore, it was crucial
that we select components to maximize the accuracy of our data, and the
reliability and lifespan of our systems," said Wayne Radochonski,
senior software engineer, Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute. "The
low quiescent current of Actel's ProASICPLUS devices was the
primary reason for their selection as it provides tremendous benefits
in power savings over previous designs. Being live at power-up, Actel's
FPGAs avoid an in-rush current spike upon power up, thus providing further
power reduction for our battery-powered seismograph."
Martin Mason, director, flash product marketing at Actel, said, "David
Packard founded MBARI in 1987 to conduct advanced research and education
in ocean science and technology, and to do so through the development
of better instruments, systems and methods for scientific research in
the deep waters of the ocean. The inherent benefits of our flash-based
ProASICPLUS devices make them an ideal solution for challenging
applications such as the MBARI seismographs, and we are pleased to be
a part of this important environmental project."
Unlike SRAM-based FPGAs that must be programmed by off-chip memory,
the ProASICPLUS devices are built on a nonvolatile flash fabric,
which retains the design even when in a powered-down state, making them
live at power-up and eliminating the need to be reconfigured from an
external device during the power-up sequence. Because there is no need
for external configuration memory, Actel's flash-based ProASICPLUS FPGAs
require less area on the board, use less power than alternative solutions
and help to simplify board and system design.
About ProASICPLUS
The ProASICPLUS family consists of devices ranging from 75,000
to 1 million system gates. The combination of a fine-grained, single-chip
ASIC-like architecture and non-volatile flash configuration memory makes
Actel's ProASICPLUS offering a strong ASIC alternative. The
devices are live at power-up, low-power, highly secure, immune to neutron-induced
firm errors, and require no separate configuration memory, all characteristics
shared by ASICs. The ProASICPLUS architecture and design methodology
support popular FPGA and ASIC tool flows, reducing time-to-market and
permitting designers to migrate easily between FPGA and ASIC solutions.
About Actel
Actel Corporation is a supplier
of innovative programmable logic solutions, including field-programmable
gate arrays (FPGAs) based on antifuse and flash technologies, high-performance
intellectual property (IP) cores, software development tools and design
services, targeted for the high-speed communications, application-specific
integrated circuit (ASIC) replacement and radiation-tolerant markets.
Founded in 1985, Actel employs more than 500 people worldwide. The
Company is traded on the Nasdaq National Market under the symbol ACTL
and is headquartered at 2061 Stierlin Court, Mountain View, CA, 94043-4655.
Telephone: 888-99-ACTEL (992-2835). Internet:: http://www.actel.com.
Contact: Stephanie Mrus, Actel Corporation, 650.318.4614
