Actel Corporation, Fusion

Actel's latest single-chip performs many system management functions

News Release from: Actel Europe Ltd
17/10/2006

Actel Corporation today announced its single-chip Actel Fusion Programmable System Chip (PSC) wich can perform system management functions including power and thermal management, data logging and system diagnostics within a variety of markets, including telecommunications, industrial, automotive, aerospace, military and medical.

While many designs can require hundreds of components to handle system management, the Actel Fusion PSC, the industry’s only mixed-signal field-programmable gate array (FPGA), can integrate these system management functions and provide programmable flexibility – all in a single chip. As a result, Fusion PSCs can offer cost and space savings of 50 percent or greater relative to current implementations.

“We believe there will be a dramatic acceleration in the adoption of highly flexible and integrated solutions in lieu of utilizing hundreds of discrete components for system management,” said Dennis Kish, senior vice president of sales and marketing at Actel. “Our Fusion mixed-signal FPGAs enable us to address the global market at a time when designers are searching for system management solutions that reduce system cost while also improving reliability.”

Increased costs and risks are driving the adoption of standards, such as the Micro Telecom Computing Architecture (MicroTCA). To meet this growing trend, Actel also announced today several MicroTCA reference designs (see release “Actel Rolls Out Industry’s First FPGA-based System Management for MicroTCA Market”). Actel believes these free, tested reference designs will drive MicroTCA adoption and provide templates for the customization of system management functions. To support system management applications like MicroTCA, Actel also offers its portfolio of intellectual property (IP) cores for processing, analog and memory interface and communications.

To speed development time, Actel offers the System Management Development Kit. Equipped with a Fusion PSC, this complete prototyping and development kit includes a set of key demonstrations, including power-up detection, power sequencing, system diagnostics and remote communications.