02 March 2010
Three into one
Actel has launched SmartFusion, which it describes as the world's first intelligent mixed signal fpga. Built on a flash process, the device features Actel's fpga fabric, a complete microcontroller subsystem built around a hard ARM Cortex-M3 processor and a range of programmable analogue blocks.
The combination of these three programmable elements is said to make offer a fully customisable and easy to use system design platform. According to Actel, embedded designers can now optimise hardware/software tradeoffs on the fly without board level changes.
Built on a 0.13µm cmos process, SmartFusion devices will be available with 60 to 500k system gates and with clock rates of up to 350MHz. With up to 204 I/Os, the devices are said to offer the ability to integrate a range of embedded system discrete components.
Product marketing manager Christian Plante said the flash process allowed a full Cortex-M3 system to be included on chip. "Flash also allows for on chip configuration, with no need for external sram. And flash also allows for 12 to 14V I/O, which would be hard to do on an sram process."
Two usage models are anticipated. One suits microcontroller users who can't find a device to suit their particular needs. "For instance," Plante noted, "they could use the fpga fabric to include more interfaces." The other usage model is to help those designers for find microcontrollers too slow and/or too power hungry.
Unusually for programmable logic vendors, Actel has announced SmartFusion is already in volume production, having been sampling with key customers for the last six months.
Author
Graham Pitcher
Supporting Information
Websites
http://www.actel.com
Companies
Microsemi
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