Product category:
Programmable Logic Devices
News Release from: Actel Europe | Subject: RTAX4000S
Edited by the Electronicstalk Editorial
Team on 08 September 2005
Space-qualified FPGA expands to 4
million gates
Actel has unveiled the industry's highest density radiation-tolerant field-programmable gate array for space designs.
Building on its rich heritage in the space design community, Actel has unveiled the industry's highest density radiation-tolerant field-programmable gate array (FPGA) for space designs The four million gate 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
This article was originally published on Electronicstalk on 3 Jul 2006 at 8.00am (UK)
Related stories
Space qualified FPGA raises the stakes for density
The RTAX4000S is billed as the industry's highest-density high-reliability field-programmable gate array for space-bound systems.
FPGA survives outer space conditions
MIL-STD 883 Class B qualification opens high-bandwidth processing applications in spacecraft payloads for the RTAX4000S FPGA.
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 (500,000 ASIC gates) with an I/O count of 840 and 540Kbit of embedded memory.
"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 reading
First flash-based industrial-grade FPGAs
Actel is shipping the industry's first flash-based "live-at-power-up" FPGA devices qualified to industrial specifications.
Largest-yet claim for flash-based FPGAs
Actel is sampling the A500K180 and A500K270 flash-based ProASIC 500K gate FPGAs with 369,000 and 473,000 system gates, respectively.
Libero sweeps up full set of FPGA design tools
Libero is Actel's next-generation integrated design environment for field-programmable gate array (FPGA) development and design.
"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.
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 104MeV-cm2/mg; immunity to configuration upsets; and total ionising dose (TID) resistance to 300Krads (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.
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.
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