Actel ProASICPLUS FPGAs Selected By Hamilton Sundstrand for Joint Strike Fighter Project
Actel's Flash-Based Reprogrammable Devices and Magma's PALACE Software
Enable Hamilton Sundstrand to Develop Interface for New High-Speed
Communication Protocol
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., June 03, 2004 —
Actel Corporation (Nasdaq:
ACTL) today announced that the company's flash-based, field-programmable
gate arrays (FPGAs) were chosen by Hamilton Sundstrand, a division of
United Technologies Corporation, for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF)
project. Actel's single-chip, reprogrammable ProASICPLUS devices
were selected to manage the communication protocol in the fighter's engine
control system and to serve as the interface to the engine's central
processing unit. The ProASICPLUS family's reprogrammability
facilitated rapid prototyping of the new high-speed communication protocol,
while its non-volatility and single-chip form factor enabled engineers
to meet the system's tight board-space constraints. Hamilton Sundstrand
also used Magma® Design Automation's PALACE™ physical synthesis
tool for programmable logic devices, available as part of Actel's Libero
Integrated Design Environment (IDE), to create a more efficient design
and achieve the highest performance for the ProASICPLUS FPGA
solutions.
"The combination of reprogrammability and nonvolatility provided
by Actel's ProASICPLUS FPGAs was critical in our selection
process as we looked for a solution that allowed us to prototype quickly
and would also take us through production. Design security and firm-error
immunity were also strong considerations in the selection of an FPGA
for this design," said Patrick J. Sears, senior FPGA design engineer,
ASIC group, at Hamilton Sundstrand. "Additionally, we were impressed
by PALACE and its ability to improve our overall design performance by
as much as 50 percent."
Ken O'Neill, director, military and aerospace product marketing at Actel,
said,
"Hamilton Sundstrand's selection of our APA750 device reinforces
our long-standing reputation for delivering reliable, high-performance
products for the military and aerospace markets. We look forward to working
closely with them on future generations of complex aircraft engine control
systems and other products."
Behrooz Zahiri, director of marketing at Magma Design Automation, said, "Using
our PALACE physical synthesis software, Hamilton Sundstrand not only
improved device performance, but also saved significant design time by
achieving timing closure with fewer design iterations."
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). Intern: http://www.actel.com.
Contact: Stephanie Mrus, Actel Corporation, 650.318.4614
