Press Release

Actel Ships Space Industry’s First Qualified FPGA With Unique Hardened Latches

By SpaceRef Editor
July 17, 2001
Filed under , ,

Actel Corporation today announced qualification and shipment of
the RT54SX32S field-programmable gate array (FPGA), the first member of the
company’s radiation-tolerant RTSX-S family specifically architected to address
single-event upsets (SEUs) in space.
Actel’s RTSX-S family is the industry’s
first FPGA solution built using SEU-hardened latches, eliminating the need for
software-based triple module redundancy (TMR).
At >63MeV-cm2/mg SEU
performance, Actel’s 32,000-gate RT54SX32S antifuse device greatly exceeds the
linear energy transfer (LET) threshold of >37MeV-cm2/mg, a physical
requirement common to the majority of satellite applications.
The
SEU-hardened latches, total ionizing dose (TID) performance in excess of
100 Krad, and inherent single-event latchup (SEL) demonstrate the RTSX-S
family’s robust survivability within radiation-intensive applications, such as
low-Earth orbiting satellites and deep space probes.p>“Exceeding our SEU design goals by such a wide margin, and thus setting
new standards for radiation-tolerant FPGAs, is exciting news for designers in
the space industry,” said John Bendekovic, director of worldwide aerospace
sales at Actel.
“We have already shipped the RT54SX32S to multiple customers,
clear evidence of Actel’s continued commitment to providing fully-qualified
FPGAs for flight-critical applications where device failure is not an option.”

The RT54SX32S has been fully characterized for the effects of TID, SEL and
SEU.
Further, the radiation performance of the device has exceeded
expectations for both process- and design-dependent parameters, as
substantiated by three independent tests.
The RTSX-S family’s SEU-hardened
latch proved to be impervious to heavy ion upset far beyond Actel’s 37 LETth
goal; TID performance tested in excess of 100 Krad; and, consistent with all
of Actel’s radiation-hardened and radiation-tolerant devices, the RT54SX32S
has tested immune to destructive heavy ion-induced SEL effects.

About the RTSX-S Family

The RTSX-S family ranges in density from 32,000 to 72,000 typical gates,
and offers system performance in excess of 250 MHz.
Actel’s RTSX-S family is
the industry’s first FPGA solution built on a foundation of hardened latches,
which obviates the need for TMR.
Traditional FPGAs, which do not use hardened
latches, force the user to implement TMR using software or a large portion of
the device’s programmable logic.
This process of majority voting, or
redundancy, means that two-thirds of the density, or available logic, is
consumed for redundancy and isn’t available for the user’s design.

Pricing and Availability

Fully-qualified RT54SX32S, MIL-STD 883 Class B and Class S-equivalent
“E flow” production quantities are available now.
Software support for the
RTSX-S family is provided by Actel’s Libero integrated design environment.
For further information about the pricing of Actel’s RTSX-S family, please
contact Actel at 703-669-3402.

About Actel

Actel Corporation is a supplier of innovative programmable logic
solutions, including field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) based on antifuse
and flash technologies and embedded programmable gate arrays (EPGAs) based on
SRAM technology, as well as high-performance intellectual property (IP) cores,
software development tools and design services.
Founded in 1985 and
headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, Actel employs approximately 500 people
worldwide.
The Company is traded on the Nasdaq National Market under the
symbol ACTL and is located at 955 East Arques Avenue, Sunnyvale, California,
94086-4533.
Telephone:
888-99-ACTEL (992-2835).
Internet:
http://www.actel.com .

NOTE:
The Actel name and logo are registered trademarks of Actel
Corporation.
All other trademarks and servicemarks are the property of their
respective owners.

SpaceRef staff editor.