Product category:
Programmable Logic Devices
News Release from: Actel Europe | Subject: Fusion PSC family
Edited by the Electronicstalk Editorial
Team on 13 December 2005
Mixed-signal FPGA removes designers'
handcuffs
The Actel Fusion programmable system chip is billed as the world's first mixed-signal FPGA family.
Satisfying a strong demand from system architects for a device that simplifies design and unleashes their creativity, the Actel Fusion programmable system chip (PSC) is billed as the world's first mixed-signal FPGA family By integrating mixed-signal analogue, Flash memory and FPGA fabric in a monolithic PSC, the Actel Fusion devices enable designers to quickly move from concept to completed design and deliver feature-rich systems to market
This article was originally published on Electronicstalk on 23 Apr 2001 at 8.00am (UK)
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The Actel Fusion PSCs bring the benefits of programmable logic to application areas, including: power management, smart battery charging, clock generation and management and motor control, that until now have only been served by either costly and space-consuming discrete analogue components or mixed-signal ASIC solutions.
The Actel Fusion PSCs present new capabilities for system development by allowing designers to integrate a wide range of functionality into a single device while at the same time offering the flexibility of upgrades in the field or deep in the production cycle.
The Actel Fusion devices provide an excellent alternative to costly and time-consuming mixed-signal ASIC design.
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In addition, when used in conjunction with Actel's ARM7 and 8051-based soft MCU cores, the Actel Fusion technology represents the definitive PSC platform.
"With the Actel Fusion PSC we are removing the handcuffs from system architects and allowing them to focus on adding unique features and enhancing end-product value", said John East, President and CEO of Actel.
"Designers will be able to treat the Fusion PSCs like a mixed signal ASIC without all the ASIC penalties of long design cycles and high costs".
To support these new devices and help maximise designer productivity, Actel has developed a comprehensive design environment that includes software tools, intellectual property (IP) and reference designs.
The Actel Fusion devices integrate a configurable 12bit successive approximation register (SAR) analogue to digital convertor (ADC) with frequencies up to 600Ksample/s.
The flexible analogue block supports MOSFET gate driver output and multiple analogue inputs from -12V to up to +12V with optional prescaler, thus enabling direct connection and control of a wide variety of analogue systems such as a voltage, differential current or temperature monitor.
The Actel Fusion PSC family is the only programmable logic solution to include embedded Flash memory - up to 1Mbyte per device.
The Flash memory offers 60ns random access and a very fast 100MHz access in read-ahead mode.
The high performance Flash memory offers a user configurable databus supporting x8, x16 and x32bit widths.
The memory also offers error correction circuitry (ECC) with 1bit error fix and 1bit error-detect capabilities.
Pseudo EEPROM can be achieved with an available endurance extender IP available from Actel.
Further, the Actel Fusion PSCs give designers unprecedented levels of flexibility by allowing them to easily reconfigure analogue block settings to perform widely different functions by simply downloading data from embedded Flash memory.
Actel's Fusion PSCs extend the core benefits of the company's Flash FPGA technology live at power-up (LAPU), single-chip, firm-error immunity and low total system cost to the world's only mixed-signal FPGAs.
The new Actel Fusion PSCs deliver the core analogue blocks required for applications in the industrial, medical, military/aerospace, communications, consumer and automotive markets.
For power sensitive applications, the Actel Fusion PSCs offer ultra-low-power sleep and standby modes and are specifically designed to handle Level 0 LAPU system supervisory activities, such as system board power-up sequencing and configuration.
The Actel Fusion technology and devices enable designers to design at both very high and very low levels of abstraction.
Fusion peripherals include hard analogue IP and hard and/or soft digital IP.
Peripherals communicate across the FPGA fabric via a layer of soft gates - the smart backbone.
Much more than a bus interface, the smart backbone integrates a micro-sequencer within the FPGA fabric and will configure the individual peripherals and support low-level processing of peripheral data.
The Actel Fusion PSC family includes four devices of varying gate densities, levels of embedded Flash and analogue channels.
Actel's AFS600 Fusion PSCs are available immediately.
Pricing for the Fusion PSC family of products start below $5.00 each in 250,000-unit quantities.
Starter kits, reference designs and software tools are also available now.
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