Actel has reduced the power consumption and cost of its lowest power FPGAs as it aims for high volume consumer applications, such as mobiles, which have been closed to FPGAs on power, cost and size grounds.
As a result Igloo FPGA devices will be available with power consumption as low as 2µW and in a package size of 3x3mm.
Actel is also offering version of the nano FPGAs for less than $1.
This effectively positions low cost, low power FPGAs in bridge chip and controller applications which have traditionally used low cost microcontrollers and discrete logic.
“The intention is to extend the FPGA market by targeting applications which have not even used complex PLDs before, let alone FPGAs,” Fares Mubarak, senior v-p at Actel told EW.
Mubarak said the company was also addressing the high volume and short lead time requirements of the consumer market by offering customers unpackaged die-versions of the chips for integration in system-in-package devices.
“This is a strategic move to meet growing trend in high volume market and we are already supplying customers with volume dies,” said Mubarak.
“This means we will offer 10k gate devices from less than half a dollar in volume,” said Mubarak.
The Igloo nano FPGAs range in densities from 10k to 250k system gates. These devices support 1.2V to 1.5V core and I/O operation.
As well as the Igloo devices, the company is also offering nano-versions of its ProASIC3 FPGAs in densities of 60k, 125k and 250k gates.
In November, Actel plans to offer a low-cost starter kit, priced at $49.95 and fitted with an Igloo AGLN250 in a VQG100 package.