MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., 10 Dec. 2007. Actel Corp. in Mountain View, Calif., is offering field programmable gate array (FPGA)-based tools for liquid crystal display (LCD) control applications.

The Igloo Video Demo Board, LCD adaptor boards with LCD panels, the Igloo Video Demo Kit (IVDK), and display-related reference blocks use Actel Igloo FPGAs, and for designers of portable and handheld military, consumer, industrial, medical, and automotive devices that use small-to-medium LCDs.

Igloo devices enter and exit LCD Flash/Freeze mode where Igloo consumes as little as 5 microwatts while retaining the contents of the system memory and data registers. As a result, the flash-based Igloo FPGA can enable both the LCD panel and the controller to function in a power-saving mode and the LCD data and backlight to be disabled, representing significant battery savings for LCD applications.

Actel's Igloo devices can be reprogrammed to adapt and support a variety of LCDs and changing display technologies, therefore enabling the easy migration between panels as necessary. Further, these FPGAs can absorb additional glue logic and more complex LCD controls into a single chip, thereby reducing board area.

For more information contact Actel online at www.actel.com.