Actel, AS9100, FPGA

Actel Achieves SAE/AS9100 Aerospace Certification

News Release from: Actel Europe Ltd
22/08/2008

Actel has announced it has become the first field-programmable gate array (FPGA) vendor to achieve SAE/AS9100 certification. Increasingly required by aerospace suppliers world-wide, Actel received the stringent AS9100 certification for its Quality Management System (QMS), which certifies that the company's processes related to design and manufacture of its low-power, programmable logic solutions have met or exceeded the required standard.

“Actel’s SAE/AS9100 certification eases the part acquisition process for our aerospace and avionics customers around the world,” said Ken O’Neill director of military products, for Actel. “Further, the achievement of this certification allows our customers to purchase Actel products with the confidence that they are getting the highest quality and reliability while ensuring their cost of ownership goals are met or exceeded.”

Today, the aircraft industry is challenged with mandates to use commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) products to obtain cost benefits, yet tasked with meeting extremely high reliability goals. The AS9100 certification has the benefits of reducing costs and improving reliability by consolidating and standardizing the quality requirements and quality systems employed by suppliers to the aerospace and avionics industry.

The AS9100 standard was developed by Working Group 11 of ISO TC20 and was supported by the International Aerospace Quality Group in order to satisfy internal, government, and regulatory requirements.