Product category:
Design and Development Hardware
News Release from: Actel Europe | Subject: Igloo Icicle Kit
Edited by the Electronicstalk Editorial
Team on 13 May 2008
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.
Two new plug-in daughtercards for the Actel Igloo Icicle Kit aim to speed the design of applications with human machine interface (HMI) and miniature motor control functionality Combined with the company's previously announced Igloo-based storage and display-related development boards, design examples and intellectual property (IP) cores, the company believes these new control-related solutions will increase market penetration for Actel's 5uW Igloo FPGAs in the rapidly growing portable market
This article was originally published on Electronicstalk on 18 Mar 2008 at 8.00am (UK)
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"Over the past year, we have targeted our ultra-low-power Igloo FPGAs at key functions, such as storage, display, and control, within portable designs", says Actel Vice President, Yankin Tanurhan.
"A platform-based design approach, our sophisticated and flexible HMI and miniature motor control solutions enable designers to shave months off of their design time and easily meet the most stringent power budgets".
As keypads, light-emitting diodes (LEDs) for backlight and display, and motors have grown commonplace, portable designers have typically relied on microcontrollers, application-specific standard products (ASSPs) or complex programmable logic devices (CPLDs) to handle HMI and miniature motor control functions.
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However, microcontrollers and ASSPs do not provide adequate flexibility and CPLDs do not offer the levels of integration or sophistication of FPGAs.
Codeveloped with partners Ishnatek, a design services company, and Avnet Memec, a division of Avnet, the new HMI and miniature motor control solutions provide a platform-based design approach, enabling designers to quickly and easily address changing requirements, implement custom algorithms, and make design changes through device reprogramming.
The HMI daughtercard demonstrates keypad control, brightness control for white LEDs, colour mixing for red, green blue (RGB) LEDs and tone generation, which is beneficial for applications like smart phones, portable gaming consoles and remote control devices.
The motor control daughtercard demonstrates brushless DC and stepper motor control and can support a variety of functions often found in portable medical, industrial and consumer applications, such as respirators, infusion and volumetric pumps, smart phones and security cameras.
An attractive low-power platform for portable design, the feature-rich 5uW Igloo FPGAs can absorb additional glue logic and multiple functions - from storage and display to control - into a single chip, thereby reducing bill of materials, board area, power consumption and cost.
And, with Igloo's power-saving Flash-Freeze function, one of several power modes the Igloo family offers to optimise power consumption, designers can tap the lowest power solution for HMI and miniature motor control applications times lower than competing programmable solutions.
According to Marc Gsand, Vice President, Technical Marketing at Avnet Electronics, which will sell the new boards: "Avnet Memec's customers value solutions which enable them to get to market faster".
"These daughter cards, which leverage Actel's award-winning Igloo FPGAs, provide a complete reference for power-sensitive and portable applications, going beyond just a piece of silicon".
"Customers further benefit from the knowledge that the complimentary devices on the daughtercards, which are available from the Avnet Memec line card, have been proven to work together".
Leveraging the company's 5uW Igloo FPGA, the Icicle Kit showcases the ultra-low-power attributes, flexible implementation options and battery-saving advantages of Igloo FPGAs for portable applications.
The US $99 kit allows designers to easily and rapidly program, evaluate and modify their low-power Igloo-based portable designs.
Powered by a rechargeable lithium-ion battery, the 36 x 92mm Icicle evaluation board consumes less than one-seventh the power of similar FPGA development solutions in a design the size of a small cellphone.
Available now, customers can purchase the US $99 Icicle Kit from Actel.
The HMI and motor control daughter cards can be purchased from Avnet's Design Resource Centre, priced at US $139 and $229, respectively.
The RTL design files, packaged as design examples, will also be available for free download from Actel's website.
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