21 January 2010
Multiple fpgas designed into Boeing airliner
Actel's low power ProAsic3 and ProAsicPlus fpga ranges have been designed into flight critical applications on the new Boeing 787 Dreamliner commercial airliner.
The Flash based fpgas have been incorporated in flight computers, cockpit displays, engine control and monitoring systems, braking systems, safety warning systems, cabin pressurisation and air conditioning systems.
The ProAsci3 and ProAsicPlus are low power, single chip, devices. According to Actel, they are immune to neutron induced configuration upsets, which is essential for avionic system designers because the occurrence of neutron radiation is approximately 150 times higher at commercial aviation altitudes than at sea level. Particularly detrimental in safety critical aerospace applications, radiation induced configuration upsets can cause sram based fpgas to lose vital configuration data and consequently behave unpredictably.
Ken O'Neill, director, military and aerospace product marketing at Actel, said: "Actel's history and proven track record of providing low power, high reliability fpgas to the aviation market was leveraged by a number of design teams working on the safety critical subsystems for the Boeing 787, resulting in many of our fpgas being used in each aircraft. We are proud to be part of this innovation, offering not only high reliability digital logic for multiple systems on the new airliner, but also delivering the quality support demanded by Boeing and its subcontractors."
The commercial aircraft successfully completed its maiden test flight on December 15, 2009.
Author
Chris Shaw
Supporting Information
Websites
http://www.actel.com
Companies
Microsemi
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