Actel Boosts FPGA Densities to New Heights with 4 Million-Gate Radiation-Tolerant Device for Space
Company Reinforces Commitment to Space Industry with Extension to
its Industry-Leading RTAX-S Family
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., September 06, 2005 —
Building
on its rich heritage in the space design community, Actel Corporation
(NASDAQ: ACTL) today unveiled the industry's highest density radiation-tolerant
field-programmable gate array (FPGA) for space designs. The RTAX4000S expands
Actel's antifuse-based RTAX-S family in order to deliver highly reliable
solutions with significant advantages over competing FPGA and Radiation-Hardened
(RH) ASIC devices for demanding space applications requiring high gate
counts. These include satellite payload systems, such as data processing
applications in communications, and earth observation and scientific
satellites. This latest member of Actel's RTAX-S family will offer four
million system gates (500K ASIC gates) with an I/O count of 840 and 540
Kbits of embedded memory. The RTAX4000S device is part of Actel's high-reliability
product roadmap, also unveiled today (see separate press release entitled, "Actel
Provides Path to the Future for Military and Aerospace Community with
Broad Hi-Rel Product Roadmap").
"The RTAX4000S device combines unparalleled density with fast design
turnaround, providing space designers with the ability to save board
space and system mass without incurring RH-ASIC lead time or tooling
charge penalties," said Ken O'Neill, director, military and aerospace
product marketing at Actel. "Further, because the SEU-hardened
RTAX4000S device does not require customer-initiated triple module redundancy,
which reduces effective gate counts by up to two thirds, Actel is able
to deliver a density that far exceeds the densities offered by competing
SRAM-based FPGA devices."
Compared with RH-ASIC solutions, the RTAX4000S will deliver cost and
time-to-market advantages. RH-ASICs can deliver high gate counts, but
they require a large up-front tooling charge that, in combination with
the minimal volume requirements for many of these applications, often
translates into a higher total unit cost. In addition, the lead times
for RH-ASICs can be long, often making them a last resort. Changes to
the ASIC design, whether due to design error or a change in the specification,
will require the customer to pay a portion of their engineering expenses
again and may cause a schedule delay. With a programmable fabric, customers
can take advantage of the flexibility to make design changes without
impacting schedule and overall system cost.
Technology Features
The four million-gate RTAX4000S will offer the same radiation performance
as existing members of Actel's RTAX-S family of FPGAs as well as the
same advanced features, including embedded RAM with error detection and
correction (EDAC), high I/O count and multiple I/O standard support.
Other advanced features include:
- Flip-flops that are practically immune to single-event upsets (SEUs)
- Memory upsets of less than 1E-10 errors/bit-day
- Single event latch-up (SEL) immunity to greater than LETTH 104 MeV-cm2/mg
- Immunity to configuration upsets
- Total Ionizing Dose (TID) resistance to 300 Krads (functional) exceeding
the requirement for most space applications
With the RTAX4000S, users will be able to conduct post-programming burn-in
using generic burn-in boards and vectors. A packaged version of the RTAX4000S
that is not flight worthy will be available so that customers may test
and validate their designs using silicon with architecture, density and
timing properties identical to the flight FPGAs.
Availability
Software support for the RTAX4000S is available now, and hardware prototypes
are expected to be available in Q1 2006. Production quantities of the
RTAX4000S are expected to be available to customers during the second
half of 2006.
Aerospace and Hi-Rel
As the leading supplier of aerospace-quality FPGAs, Actel Corporation
has a proud and rich heritage of delivering a variety of products to
the military and aerospace communities. For nearly two decades, Actel
has been providing aerospace designers with products able to withstand
the rigors of the harsh radiation environment of space and meet the quality
standards demanded by the space community. Actel's high-performance,
highly dependable antifuse technology has benefited the aerospace community
and boosted Actel into the space-qualified FPGA leadership position.
About Actel
Actel Corporation is the leader in single-chip FPGA solutions.
The Company is traded on the NASDAQ National Market under the symbol
ACTL and is headquartered at 2061 Stierlin Court, Mountain View, Calif.,
94043-4655. For more information about Actel, visit http://www.actel.com.
Telephone: 888-99-ACTEL (992-2835).
Contact: Stephanie Mrus, Actel Corporation, 650.318.4614
