FPGAs, flash-based FPGAs, Actel UMC,

Actel Leverages UMC Foundry Solutions for 65nm eFlash FPGAs

News Release from: Actel Europe Ltd
19/11/2008

Actel has announced that the two companies have cooperated for the production of Actel's next generation flash-based FPGAs (field programmable gate array). The chips will be manufactured on UMC's 65nm low leakage process, and will take advantage of the foundry's 65nm embedded flash (eFlash) technology. Successful first-silicon demonstration of Actel's 65nm eFlash-based FPGA has already been achieved at UMC's 300mm Fabs.

“Actel’s unique flash-based technology has been the company’s key differentiating factor, and the reason why we have been growing rapidly in the consumer, automotive, and industrial markets,” said Dr. Esmat Hamdy, Senior Vice President of Technology and Operations at Actel Corporation. “Our innovations are squarely focused on the real needs of today’s designers: lowering power, size, and cost. Partnering with UMC for our next generation flash-based FPGAs allows us to provide even greater benefits to our customers.”

UMC’s 65nm CMOS technology is in volume production at the company’s two 300mm fabs, with yield-proven customer products from all major sectors of the semiconductor industry. UMC’s 65nm embedded flash technology is ready for customer design-in, with key modules ready and working silicon already achieved.

Joe Ko, vice president of Specialty Technology Development at UMC, commented, “We are excited that Actel is taking advantage of UMC’s 65nm low leakage CMOS and embedded flash technologies to further the competitiveness of their upcoming products. Compared to earlier products built on the 0.13-micron process node, UMC’s 65nm eFlash technology will allow Actel’s FPGAs to realize a 50% smaller cell size and a 3X speed gain to enable higher overall performance.”