Actel's Third-Generation Flash-Based Devices Set the Bar at $1.50 as Industry's Lowest Cost FPGA Solution
Company Poised to Address More Than 50 Percent
of New FPGA Designs; New Single-Chip ProASIC3/E Devices Moving Flash
Into the Mainstream
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., January 24, 2005 —
Entering
a new era of competitive intervention, Actel Corporation (Nasdaq: ACTL)
today unveiled its ProASIC3 and ProASIC3E families, the company's third
generation of flash-based programmable logic solutions and the world's
lowest cost field-programmable gate array (FPGA). With the ProASIC3/E
families, Actel addresses strong market demand for full-featured, cost-effective
FPGAs for consumer, automotive and other price-sensitive application
areas. This "value-based" segment represents the fastest growing
component of the FPGA market and is estimated to be $500M this year.
"Over the past 10 years, flash technology has evolved into a disruptive
technology, dramatically impacting every application it has touched," said
John East, president and CEO of Actel. "For example, flash technology
has transformed cell phones, cameras and video recorders into revolutionary
variants of their predecessors. Flash is now poised to do the same for
the programmable logic market. Indeed, the paradigm for mainstream FPGA
technology platforms has changed forever, and Actel is in a position
of leadership."
Rich Wawryzniak, senior analyst, ASIC/SoC, at Semico Research, said, "As
time-to-market pressures compound and manufacturing costs skyrocket,
FPGAs are quickly encroaching on the value-based markets traditionally
served by cell-based ASICs, including consumer and automotive, which
demand both high security and rock bottom prices. With low price points
and a secure flash architecture, Actel's ProASIC3/E devices are a shot
in the arm to the PLD market as a whole."
East added, "Starting at $1.50, these new ProASIC3 devices represent
the world's lowest cost FPGA solutions while delivering performance and
security advantages over comparable SRAM-based products. Flash-based
FPGAs are now able to provide secure, low-power, live at power-up, reprogrammable
solutions that deliver the time-to-market advantages of FPGAs at ASIC-like
unit costs, mitigating the need for ASIC migration at higher volumes."
Building on the success of its ProASICPLUS family, Actel's
new single-chip devices deliver 64-bit 66 MHz PCI performance and are
the industry's first FPGAs with on-chip user flash memory. The devices
range in density from 30,000 to 3 million system gates and deliver technology-leading
integrated secure in-system programmability (ISP).
In addition to low unit cost, the new ProASIC3/E families also lower
overall system costs by eliminating the need for various components on
the system board. For example, the single-chip devices require no external
boot-prom or microcontroller to support device programming, and the live-at-power-up
feature of the ProASIC3/E devices eliminates the need for an external
CPLD to get the system running during power-up. Enabling the use of fewer
components reduces board space, which leads to increased reliability,
simplified inventory management and lower total system costs.
Flash FPGAs Deliver Price, Performance and Security Advantages
The ProASIC3/E families provide 1024 bits (128x8 pages) of on-chip user
nonvolatile flash memory and clock conditioning circuits based on up
to six on-board phase-locked loops (PLLs). The user-accessible, nonvolatile
memory can be used for a diverse range of system applications, including
Internet Protocol (IP) device addressing, user preference storage, system
calibration settings, device serialization and/or inventory control and
date stamping. The devices also come with up to 504kbits of embedded
true dual-port SRAM and up to 616 user I/Os, offering 66 MHz 64-bit PCI
performance.
Unlike SRAM-based FPGAs, on-board security mechanisms prevent access
to all the programming information, and reprogramming can be securely
performed in-system, using the industry-standard 128-bit AES algorithm
to support future design iterations and field upgrades with peace of
mind that valuable IP will not be compromised or copied. The ProASIC3/E
families incorporate FlashLock, providing a unique combination of reprogrammability
and design security without external overhead. The built-in decryption
engine and flash-based AES key make the ProASIC3/E families the most
comprehensive programmable logic device solutions available today. In
addition, nonvolatile flash technology gives the ProASIC3/E devices the
advantage of being low power and live at power-up.
The ProASIC3/E families achieve nonvolatility and reprogrammability
through an industry-leading advanced, flash-based LVCMOS process with
seven metallization layers — six copper, one aluminum. Standard
CMOS design techniques are used to implement logic and control functions,
including the PLLs, resulting in predictable performance. The combination
of fine granularity, enhanced flexible routing resources and abundant
flash switches allows for up to 100 percent utilization by even highly
congested designs with minimal performance impact.
Features of ProASIC3
- 30k to 1 million system gates
- 18 to 108kbits of true dual-port SRAM
- 81 to 288 user I/Os
- 3.3V, 64-bit 66 MHz PCI
- Up to 350 MHz external system performance
- 1.5V core voltage for low power
- 1.5V, 1.8V, 2.5V and 3.3V I/O voltage operation
- Bank-selectable I/O voltages — up to 4 banks per chip
Features of ProASIC3E
- 600k to 3 million system gates
- 108 to 504kbits of true dual-port SRAM
- Up to 616 user I/Os
- 3.3V, 64-bit 66 MHz PCI
- Up to 350 MHz external system performance
- 1.5V core voltage for low power
- 1.5V, 1.8V, 2.5V and 3.3V I/O voltage operation
- Bank-selectable I/O voltages — 8 banks per chip
Pricing and Availability
Samples of the ProASIC3E 600 device are available through Actel's early
access program. Production quantities are scheduled for Q4 2005. Pricing
for ProASIC3 starts at $1.50, with seven devices under $10 in 250K quantities.
For further information about pricing and availability, please contact
Actel.
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
