MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., 11 Aug.Actel Corp. officials announced today that the company added new ProASIC3 and ProASIC3EL FPGAs (field programmable gate arrays) to its military-qualified product offerings.
Verified to operate across the full military temperature range (-55 to +125 degrees Celsius) and ranging in density from 600,000 to 3-million system gates, the new low-power devices are immune to neutron-induced configuration upsets ("firm errors"), saving board space and minimizing complexity in the system, Actel officials say. The lower power, increased gate density, and improved performance allow designers to eliminate the higher power consumption and failure risks often associated with SRAM-based FPGAs, company officials say.
Military and avionics systems, such as mission computers, navigation and guidance systems, and stores management systems often have limited or no forced cooling, requiring electronics with minimal heat dissipation and very low power consumption," says Ken O'Neill, director of marketing, high-reliability products for Actel. "Our high-density, military-temperature ProASIC3 and ProASIC3EL devices give designers the increased logic they need for their sophisticated military and aerospace applications."
On a per-gate basis, competitive SRAM-based FPGAs consume 60 percent higher dynamic power and 100 times more static power than ProASIC3L devices, Actel officials say. The largest part in the new military-qualified offering, the 3-million-gate A3PE3000L, consumes only 310mW at 100MHz and 2.75mW in static mode, making it suitable for thermally-challenged and space-constrained applications. Technology-leading, integrated, secure in-system programming (ISP) support enables valuable field programming upgrades.
Ranging in density from 600,000 to 3-million system gates, Actel's low-power military-temperature ProASIC3 and ProASIC3L FPGAs deliver 64-bit 66 MHz PCI performance. The 1.2V to 1.5V military-qualified devices are immune to neutron-induced firm errors, which are receiving growing recognition in the aerospace community as a significant reliability threat at aviation altitudes. Devices also feature Actel's unique ultra low-power FlashFreeze mode, which allows fast switching (within 1us) between active and static states.
The A3P1000-PQ208M and A3P1000-FG144M are qualified and shipping now. The remaining devices are expected to be qualified by the end of the year. All devices will be offered in military-temperature plastic (MTP) packages. Standard and Dash-1 speed grades will be available for most devices.
