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Actel Goes After Auto Market

The manufacturer says . . . Murray Disman says . . .

Actel Rolls Out New Line of Automotive FPGAs
eX solutions provide high reliability, extreme-temperature operation, fast design time, and low development cost for automotive applications.
SUNNYVALE, Calif.--April 7, 2003--Underscoring its commitment to deliver best-in-class high-reliability products, Actel Corporation announced a new line of field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) targeted specifically for the automotive market. Characterized for operation from -40°C to 125°C ambient temperature and up to 150°C junction temperature, the highest temperatures among competitive FPGA solutions, the initial offering includes all members of Actel's successful eX family, with plans to extend the automotive line to also include the company's MX and SX-A families. Leveraging the inherent low-power, high-performance, low-cost, and security benefits of Actel's nonvolatile antifuse technology, Actel's automotive FPGAs enable designers to use programmable logic for their traditionally low-density application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) requirements.
The new automotive products are well suited to in-cab control and interconnect functions for a range of telematic applications such as navigation, speech recognition, control/comfort systems, passenger monitors, and heads-up displays.
"The introduction of our new automotive eX FPGAs is a timely one, as the design benefits of programmable-logic solutions address the growing demand for more advanced, more converged in-cab applications," said Barry Marsh, vice president of product marketing at Actel Corporation. "Further, with the acknowledged benefits of our single-chip, nonvolatile technologies in combination with our long history of delivering highly reliable solutions, Actel's automotive products deliver the features and small-package flexibility automotive customers need to speed time-to-market without compromising cost or performance while offering improved quality and durability for in-cab automotive systems."
Actel's automotive eX family includes three products, the eX64A, eX128A, and the eX256A, and is available in 2.5 V or 3.3 V operating modes. For these new automotive solutions, Actel offers customers the industry's broadest package portfolio certified to extended automotive temperature, including chip-scale (CS) and fine-pitch ball-grid array (FBGA).
Optimized Intellectual Property
Actel also offers customers a broad portfolio of IP specifically designed and optimized for in-cab automotive applications. Initially, Actel and its partners Memec Design, Amphion Semiconductor, Inc., CAST, Inc., and Inicore, Inc., will offer more than 30 IP cores for Actel's automotive solutions, including CAN, I²C interface, SPI, Z80CPU, MC-ACT-6809 CPU, Reed Solomon, and DES/3DES/AES. By providing customers with predesigned IP, Actel helps reduce design time and provides the ability to integrate multiple design elements into a one-chip solution, reducing an application's component count and cost.
"Since 1996, we've supported common automotive IP, such as the CANbus, and our products are used by customers worldwide," said Dr. Richard Joy, vice president at Memec Design. "With the huge market opportunity for FPGA technology in the growing automotive market, Memec Design is excited to be involved with Actel, and we intend to support its venture fully."
Pricing and Availability
The automotive eX family is available now in production-level volumes, with prices below $2 per unit in 100k quantities. Actel's automotive MX and SX-A solutions are expected to be available in early Q3 2003. For more information about Actel's automotive solutions, please visit the Actel Web site at www.actel.com.

Like Xilinx and Altera, Actel is looking to develop markets outside of the telecom area. Telecom applications fueled the PLD industry's growth until 2001 when everything "came unglued." The frenzy that drove the telecom segment is gone, and the competition among the equipment suppliers has increased as the numbers of their customers shrank. Equipment costs have become more important than time-to-market considerations, and this has put considerable pressure on the FPGA suppliers.
Xilinx was the first to announce an interest in the automotive Telematics market. They were followed by Altera, with its Cyclone family, and now Actel has announced that it intends to supply automotive versions of its eX, MX, and SX-A FPGA families. Actel has expanded the definition of Telematics to include all types of in-cab electronic equipment.
Actel intends to pursue primarily the interconnect and control functions related to the in-cab electronics. The company points out that some 200/300 pounds of electrical wiring is currently used in each auto. The auto companies are therefore examining various bus approaches to reduce the amount of copper wire used. The most likely bus to be used broadly is the CANbus, but other buses are being considered. FPGAs can serve a key role in bus-oriented systems.
Actel has had considerable experience in supplying its antifuse FPGAs for space and military/aerospace markets. The company intends to introduce flash-based products for the military/aerospace markets later this year. While not as stringent as the under-the-hood requirements, the in-cab automotive market can be characterized as one that has severe environmental conditions.
To meet these requirements, Actel has extended the temperature range for its eX automotive devices from -40°C to +125°C ambient. Performance is reduced by about 20% over this temperature range.
The 125°C upper limit translates into a junction temperature of 150°C. Actel points out that the Xilinx automotive parts are only rated for a junction temperature of 125°C.

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