Product category:
Intellectual Property Cores
News Release from: Actel Europe | Subject: ARM Cortex-M1 core for Igloo
Edited by the Electronicstalk Editorial
Team on 19 September 2007
Cortex core runs on power-efficient
FPGAs
ARM Cortex-M1 processor core is optimised for use with Igloo low-power field programmable gate arrays..
Enabling system designers to dramatically extend the battery life of their handheld and portable designs, Actel has optimised the ARM Cortex-M1 processor core for its Igloo family of FPGAs The combination of the industry's lowest power FPGA family, with a pervasive, industry-standard 32bit ARM processor specifically designed for use in FPGAs, gives designers the ideal, low-power integrated platform for rapidly deploying portable products
This article was originally published on Electronicstalk on 13 May 2008 at 8.00am (UK)
Related stories
Plug-in cards speed specific FPGA designs
HMI and miniature motor control daughtercards enable designers to shave months off of their design time and easily meet the most stringent power budgets.
FPGA family promises more for less
Low-power field-programmable gate arrays claim the industry's best power-, area-, logic- and feature-per-I/O ratios in a programmable device.
Furthermore, as the only FPGA supplier to offer the industry-standard processor free-of-charge to customers, Actel enables designers to cost-effectively leverage the large installed base of software and design tools available for the ARM architecture, reducing time to market and development costs.
Attractive for portable applications with 5uW static power, Igloo FPGAs consume more than 200x less static power than competitive FPGA offerings and deliver more than 10x the battery life of the current leading PLDs in portable applications.
In an Igloo FPGA, the Cortex-M1 core features very low operating current and static power, consuming only 24uA in static mode and 3uA in sleep mode.
Further reading
Programmable devices add ADC calibration
Fusion PSC calibration intellectual property eliminates the additional discrete ADCs and prescalers often required to achieve higher levels of accuracy.
Low-cost FPGAs start under a buck
New Igloo AGL015 and ProASIC3 A3P015 FPGAs provide lower cost, lower power alternative to low-density FPGAs and CPLDs in consumer, medical, comms and industrial applications
FPGA survives outer space conditions
MIL-STD 883 Class B qualification opens high-bandwidth processing applications in spacecraft payloads for the RTAX4000S FPGA.
The innovative Igloo Flash-Freeze mode, which enables easy entry and exit from ultra-low-power modes while retaining SRAM and register data, reduces quiescent current to 20uA.
The Flash-Freeze feature also allows instant on/off cycling of the Cortex-M1 core for maximum performance and minimum power consumption.
"With tight power budgets, short product lifecycles and evolving standards, designers of portable, battery-operated applications require semiconductor solutions with low power operation and optimisation modes, as well as a small footprint, low cost and flexibility".
"As the leading 32bit processor supplier to the portable market, ARM is the ideal processor to utilise with our low-power Igloo FPGA devices for this market", said Rich Brossart, Vice President of Product Marketing at Actel.
"The M1-enabled Igloo solution delivers an unprecedented combination of low power, small sise and flexibility to significantly extend battery life in sophisticated, feature-rich portable devices".
Until now, a majority of portable designers have implemented their devices using a microcontroller in conjunction with a programmable logic device.
They have used the microcontroller to implement the necessary processing, and have programmed the FPGA with additional application-specific features and functions not supported by the microcontroller.
The combination of the ARM Cortex-M1 processor with Igloo provides a single-chip solution that reduces cost, power, board space and design complexity.
Furthermore, because Actel FPGAs are virtually immune to tampering, designers have the peace-of-mind that their valuable IP will not be compromised or copied.
"By porting the ARM Cortex-M1 processor to the lower power Igloo family, ARM and Actel are pitching FPGAs as practical solutions for battery-powered mobile systems", says Tom R Halfhill, Senior Analyst for In-Stat's Microprocessor Report.
"A big advantage of ARM's partnership with Actel is that customers needn't license the Cortex-M1 from ARM, pay upfront licensing fees, or pay chip royalties".
"Instead, customers get a black-box implementation of the Cortex-M1, ready for deployment, which can easily slash 18 to 24 months off a project schedule and save hundreds of thousands of dollars, compared with developing an ASIC".
The Cortex-M1 processor is initially available for use in Actel's 600,000-gate Igloo device, the M1AGL600.
Featuring 32bit performance and consuming just 33% of available chip real estate on the device, the processor provides a good balance between sise and speed, while also offering ample space for customisation.
With 5uW static power, Igloo FPGAs are the lowest power FPGAs on the market.
These solutions consume upwards of 200x less static power than competitive FPGA offerings and deliver more than 10x the battery life of the current leading PLDs in portable applications.
Offering both 1.2 and 1.5V operation, Igloo FPGAs enable dynamic power to be reduced by 35% in 1.2V operation.
The Cortex-M1 processor is supported by the comprehensive tools and knowledge that exists for the ARM architecture, far surpassing the level of support offered for proprietary processors.
Actel supports the Cortex-M1 processor with its CoreConsole IP Deployment Platform, its SoftConsole program development environment, and Actel Libero Integrated Design Environment all available for free download from Actel's website.
Third-party vendors, such as Aldec, CriticalBlue, CodeSourcery, IAR, ImpulseC, Keil and Micrium, also support the processor with a host of tools from compilers and debuggers to RTOS support.
The M1AGL600 is available now with additional family members slated for 2008.
Pricing starts at US $3.70 for an M1 Igloo device in volume.
• Actel Europe: contact details and other news
• Email this article to a colleague
• Register for the free Electronicstalk email newsletter
• Electronicstalk Home Page
Search the Pro-Talk network of sites
