Actel low-cost Igloo Plus Starter Kit features the Igloo Plus family of low-power field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), which offer the industry's best power-, logic- and feature-per-I/O ratios in a programmable device.

The Igloo Plus Starter Kit enables designers to quickly evaluate Actel's Igloo Plus family and prototype their designs. Ranging from 30,000 to 125,000 gates, the 1.2V to 1.5V Igloo Plus devices have been optimized to meet the needs of power-conscious applications that require enhanced I/O features.

The fully RoHS-compliant kit features a modular board with the Igloo Plus AGLP125 device, Libero Integrated Design Environment (IDE) DVD, a programming stick, user’s guide, tutorial and design examples.

To ensure a complete system-level power management system for the Igloo Plus starter kit, Actel collaborated with National Semiconductor to incorporate National's high-performance products.

The kit's evaluation board includes three buck regulators from National’s energy-efficient PowerWise product line. The LM3671 and LM2854 each feature peak efficiency above 96% to minimize power consumption, while the LM3678 features a typical switching frequency of 3.3 MHz.

Also included is the LM27313 boost converter with 90% peak efficiency and a 30V internal FET switch. All of the products are optimized for the small form factor and efficiency requirements of the kit.

The Igloo Plus family is designed for portable electronics in consumer, industrial, communications, medical and test applications.

The Igloo Plus Starter Kit costs $199.

More information: www.actel.com/products/hardware/devkits_boards/iglooplus_starter.aspx