System Management Solutions

System management continues to gain importance in the design of complex electronic systems. Smaller process geometries drive more multi-voltage devices and are more susceptible to voltage and temperature fluctuations. While system management designs can run into hundreds of discrete components, solutions using an SmartFusion™ intelligent mixed signal FPGA or Actel Fusion® mixed signal FPGA can integrate a wide array of diverse system management functions and provide programmable flexibility and system-level integration—all in a single chip.

Actel, the world leader in mixed signal FPGAs, now offers two device families that deliver single-chip system management solutions.

Actel's SmartFusion intelligent mixed signal FPGA delivers unprecedented integration by combining Actel’s proven flash-based FPGA fabric, on-chip nonvolatile flash memory, on-chip analog-to-digital resources, integrated on-chip I/Os including on-chip Ethernet MAC, and a 100 MHz 32-bit ARM® Cortex™-M3 microprocessor in one low-power device.

Actel's Fusion mixed signal flash FPGAs integrate configurable analog, large flash memory blocks, comprehensive clock generation, management circuitry, and high-performance, high-reliability programmable logic in a single device.

Integration at this level yields cost and space savings of 50% or greater compared to discrete device system management implementations. Actel has developed a range of turnkey solutions for system management. This level of integration, configurability, and support establishes SmartFusion and Fusion as definitive solutions for system management.

System Management in a Single Chip

Actel's Fusion mixed signal FPGAs established a new FPGA segment as the world's first mixed signal FPGA. Actel's SmartFusion family of devices represents the next generation of intelligent mixed signal FPGA, with integrated ARM 32-bit Cortex-M3 processor, on-chip embedded nonvolatile memory (eNVM), a wide array of I/Os including on-chip Ethernet MAC, extensive analog resources enabling simultaneous sample-and-hold, and Actel's proven low power FPGA fabric to deliver maximum flexibility to embedded system designers. Actel FPGA devices enable designers to quickly move from concept to completed design and deliver feature-rich systems to market. SmartFusion intelligent mixed signal FPGA technology takes advantage of the unique properties of Actel flash-based FPGAs, including a high-isolation, triple-well process that gives SmartFusion the ability to support high voltage transistors to meet the demanding requirements of mixed-signal system design. Platform management solutions leverage these properties to integrate the functions of a number of legacy discrete devices and deliver world class hardware platform management on a single chip.

The inherent flexibility of Actel's solutions enables users to implement proprietary or standards-based system management solutions that simplify design implementation, enabling all system management functions to be configured in a single design environment with increased reliability.

SmartFusion and Fusion also bring Actel's heritage in high reliability FPGAs to bear on system management solutions. Actel's low power flash FPGA fabric is immune to firm errors caused by charged particle or neutron single-event upsets, which today are often experienced in sea-level continuous availability applications. Flash FPGAs are also immune to alpha particle upset errors experienced even when low alpha packaging compounds are used. Platform management designs moving from discrete components to mixed signal FPGA designs commonly see failures in time (FIT) rate improvements of greater than one order of magnitude.

Read more about SmartFusion Benefits and Fusion Benefits.

Power Management

• Control up to 10 power supplies from -11 V to +12 V
  • Voltage monitoring
  • Current monitoring
• Power-on detection and reset
• Power sequencing
• Closed-loop voltage trimming
• On-chip nonvolatile event and data logging

Thermal Management

• On-chip temperature monitor
• Integrated temperature monitoring, requiring only an external transistor
• Fan control capability using pulse-width modulation output for closed-loop thermal management

System Clocking

• Internal and external oscillator clock sources
• Backup system clock

SRAM FPGA Management

• Integration of boot programmable read-only memory (PROM) and brownout detection devices
• Power-up sequencing

Diagnostics/Prognostics

• Log timestamped key system parameters for failure analysis
• Nonvolatile data and event logs enable forensic analysis

Remote and Local Communications

• Supports multiple standard or proprietary communication protocols
• Large number of general purpose I/Os available

Identification/Authentication

• Backed with AES security
• No communication between devices of any programming files that could be intercepted and cloned
• Supports secure handshakes or device authentication

Other Applications

• Boot loader for MCU
• Error/alarm recovery
• Low-power operation

Actel Telecommunications Computing Architecture (xTCA) reference designs and development kits drastically reduce risk, component count, and time-to-market. The xTCA series of specifications, defined by the more than 250 members of the PCI Industrial Computer Manufacturers Group (PICMG®), includes AdvancedTCA® (ATCA), AdvancedMC™ (AMC), and MicroTCA®. These standard architectures reduce the cost of telecommunications, industrial, medical, and military equipment by establishing common physical, electrical, and functional specifications and ensuring interoperability.

Pigeon Point Systems, an Actel Company, has established the gold standard for xTCA standards compliant Hardware Platform Management solutions. With SmartFusion and Fusion mixed signal FPGAs, Pigeon Point Systems now offers a comprehensive array of solutions addressing every xTCA requirement. To learn more, refer to xTCA Solutions and Pigeon Point Systems.

Actel's SmartFusion intelligent mixed signal FPGA delivers unprecedented integration by combining Actel’s proven flash-based FPGA fabric, on-chip nonvolatile flash memory, on-chip analog-to-digital resources, integrated on-chip I/Os including on-chip Ethernet MAC, and a 100 MHz 32-bit ARM Cortex-M3 microprocessor in a single low-power device. Actel Fusion mixed signal FPGAs enable power management, including power-up sequencing, runtime power monitoring, and power-down control.

Actel has developed the Mixed-signal Power Manager (MPM) reference design to demonstrate configurable power management in SmartFusion and Fusion device implementations. To learn more, refer to Power Management Solutions.

The SmartFusion Evaluation Kit offers a simple, low-cost way to try the world's only FPGA with hard ARM Cortex-M3 and programmable analog. The SmartFusion device contains on-chip flash and on-chip SRAM memory, and the kit adds additional SPI flash memory, an OLED display, and built in Ethernet connectivity. The evaluation kit board also includes LEDs, switches, and various voltage, current and temperature monitoring functions for analog experimentation on the board.

For more information, refer to the SmartFusion Evaluation Kit page.

The SmartFusion Development Kit offers a full-featured development board so you can develop a complete system with the world's only FPGA with hard ARM Cortex-M3 and programmable analog. The SmartFusion device contains on-chip flash and SRAM memory, and the development kit board adds additional off-chip flash memory and SRAM/PSRAM in two voltage domains. The board can communicate via Ethernet and HyperTerminal. The development kit board also contains LEDs, switches, an OLED display and extensive analog resources, including voltage rail monitoring, current POT, temperature diodes and voltage sweeping using active bipolar prescalers (ABPS). Networking interfaces include Ethernet PHY, EtherCAT, CAN, UART, and RS485.

For more information, refer to the SmartFusion Development Kit page.

The Fusion Embedded Development Kit is fully RoHS-compliant and contains a credit card-sized modular board featuring the incredibly powerful ARM Cortex-M1-enabled Fusion M1AFS1500 device in the FGG484 package as well as a miniature programming stick. The Fusion Embedded Development Kit is a complete solution that enables you to quickly evaluate Actel's Fusion mixed signal FPGA family and prototype your design.

For more information, refer to the Fusion Embedded Development Kit page.

The Fusion Advanced Development Kit is fully RoHS-compliant and provides an excellent platform for developing microprocessor applications and other system management applications. The M1AFS1500 ARM®-enabled Fusion mixed signal flash FPGA on the board supports ARM Cortex™-M1, Core8051s, and other soft IP processors. The kit performs the following functions:

• Power-up detection
• Power sequencing
• Thermal management
• Sleep modes
• System diagnostics
• Remote communications
• Clock generation and management

The MPM demonstrator is a reference design targeted to the Fusion Advanced Development Kit that delivers superior power monitoring, power sequencing, and threshold control of up to 16 power regulators. Users can configure power management sequencing, levels, or thresholds using an easy-to-use standalone graphical user interface (GUI) tool, which also enables the user to program the MPM design into the Fusion device.

For more information, refer to the Fusion Advanced Development Kit page.