North American Company Profiles - Smithsonian - The Chip Collection

Actel North American Company Profiles
Accelerator Series
• The ACT3 family consists of devices ranging from 1,500 to 10,000 gates (25,000 PLD equivalent gates) and
on-chip performance of up to 250MHz (system performance up to 75MHz). This family of circuits is based on
0.8μm double-level-metal CMOS technology.
• The ACT3 PCI family consists of fully PCI-compliant devices with 4,000 to 10,000 usable gates and on-chip
performance of up to 250MHz. This family of circuits is based on 0.6μm double-level-metal CMOS technology.
Integrator Series
• The 1200XL family features parts ranging from 2,500 to 8,000 gates and offers system performance of up to
60MHz. This family of circuits is based on 0.65μm CMOS technology.
• The 3200DX family is Actel’s newest series of FPGAs with capacities ranging from 6,500 gates to 40,000 gates
and offering system performance of up to 100MHz. These high-performance FPGAs offer fast dual-port
SRAM, fast decode, and data path circuitry based on 0.65μm double-level-metal CMOS technology.
Reprogrammable SPGAs
• Actel’s ES family of system programmable gate arrays (SPGAs) are non-antifuse PLDs designed to address the
system-on-a-chip market. The fine-grained array of logic module blocks enables gate counts from 50,000
gates up to 400,000 gates. The SRAM-based SPGAs permit the integration of complex intellectual property
(IP) cores and support in-system programmability (ISP). Actel jointly developed the SPGA technology with the
Silicon Architects Group of Synopsys.
Radiation-Hardened FPGAs
• Actel’s RadHard family of FPGAs currently consists of radiation-hardened versions of its 2,000-gate ACT1
device and its 8,000-gate ACT2 device. These devices were first shipped in 1996 and ramped more quickly
than any other product in the company’s history. The RadHard family is based on 0.8μm double-level-metal
epitaxial bulk CMOS technology jointly developed with Lockheed-Martin Federal Systems.
Mask Programmed Gate Arrays (MPGAs)
• Offered as an alternative to traditional gate array conversions, Actel’s MPGAs provide significant cost
reductions for high-volume applications. An Actel FPGA used for prototyping and initial production can be
replaced by a corresponding MPGA (masked version of the device).
To support its FPGA products, Actel offers software products, including its CoreHDL IP portfolio consisting of
telecommunications cores, industrial cores, a Universal Serial Bus (USB) interface, and Actel-developed CorePCI
models, as well as proprietary and third-party design automation software. In addition, Actel provides programming
and test hardware and a diagnostic option that provides special in-circuit debug and diagnostic capabilities.
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INTEGRATED CIRCUIT ENGINEERING CORPORATION