Fpga microsemis ultra low power fpgas and mixed signal fpga solutions offer the most comprehensive portfolio of system and power management solutions. A tutorial on incremental design using fpgas from actel. Jonathan greene fellow microsemi corporation linkedin. Programming microsemi actel fpga chips superpro is01 programmer has an inbuilt stapl player which can be used to program microsemi actel fpga chips. You are free to use all these tools but either with limited lines of code or debug features, for example, you cannot use microbl. A fieldprogrammable gate array fpga is an integrated circuit designed to be configured by a customer or a designer after manufacturing hence the term fieldprogrammable. Actel corporation is a supplier of innovative programmable logic solutions, including fieldprogrammable gate arrays fpgas based on antifuse and flash technologies, highperformance intellectual property ip cores, software development tools and design services, targeted for the highspeed communications, applicationspecific integrated circuit asic replacement and radiationtolerant markets. Emulate your opencl software technology c accelerator code on an x86based host in seconds with detailed optimization reports. Actel designer r12003 fpga development software release notes. Triscend e5 development environment evaluation lattice.
The major elements of the actel fpga architecture are thus the io modules, interconnect resources, clocking resources, and logic modules. Actel also sells two development boards that include an smartfusion chip. Smartfusion a2f500 development kit now available from actel. Joseph demarco digital radar scene developer and fpga. The actel rtaxs is a new series of the previous generation of parts antifusebased fpgas. Each actel fpga family has a slightly different mix of these resources, optimized for different cost. The fpga configuration is generally specified using a hardware description language hdl, similar to that used for an applicationspecific integrated circuit asic. Uses actel flashpro software, available as part of libero integrated development environment or standalone free software updates supports microsoft windows vista business and xp operating systems. Rt54sxs had reliability issues with the programmed antifuse.
These versions are limited to a certain set of devices and may have other limitations too. Actel and arm announce the cortexm1 soft processor core. Designers of communications, computer, consumereappliance, industrial, militaryaerospace, and other electronic systems to differentiate their products and get them to market faster use fpgas. Actel completes acquisition of autogate, gaining fpga. Opencl software technology allows users to abstract away the traditional hardware fpga development flow for a much faster and higherlevel software development flow. For software developers and all embedded applications. The actmap fpga fitter is an optimization tool that enables pal users to easily integrate multiple pal devices into a single actel fpga. Edn actel completes acquisition of autogate, gaining fpga. The silicon explorer tool suite includes probepilot, a highspeed signal acquisition hardware interface between the actel fpga, the board on which the fpga resides, and the designers desktop computer. Synopsys and actel renew oem relationship for fpga design. Understanding fpga processor interconnects electronic design. And of course, you still get all the features and functions you expect from actel fpgas, at the. You are familiar with fpga architecture and fpga design software.
Fred wickersham is product marketing manager for software tools at actel. These software development tools are designed for creating and debugging embedded software applications, including targeting actels arm cortexm3based smartfusion intelligent mixed signal fpgas. Actel fpgas accelerate development of multipleapplication. Actel was founded in 1985 and became known for its highreliability and antifusebased fpgas, used in the military and aerospace markets.
For customers wanting to take immediate advantage of the highest density member of actels smartfusion intelligent mixed signal fpga family, the company today announced the availability of the a2f500 development kit. Testing and programming actel field programmable gate arrays. Synplify pro fpga logic synthesis software is the industry standard for producing. In 2000, actel acquired gatefield which expanded actels antifuse fpga offering to include flashbased fpgas. Microsemi has made changes to the license options for libero soc software, that are used for designing with fpga evaluation and development kits. The software accepts the output of popular palpld design tools in a palasm format or the output from schematicentry tools as an edif netlist and maps the logic efficiently into the actel architecture. Libero integrated design environment is actels comprehensive software toolset for designing with all actel fpgas, including.
Fpga workbench leverages intels altera quartus prime standard edition software package and includes a powerful gui for selecting and configuring a wide range of predeveloped data acquisition and. Actel corporation, founded in 1985, is a supplier of innovative programmable logic solutions, including fieldprogrammable gate arrays fpgas based on antifuse and flash technologies, highperformance intellectual property ip cores, software development tools and design services targeted for the highspeed communications, application. Autogate brings to actel a wide range of vlsi development tools, including fpga and custom ic place and route and timing analysis software. Ein field programmable gate array englisch, fpga oder programmierbares logikgatter ist. The stapl player is used to program proasicplus as well as third generation flash based fpga devices such as igloo, proasic3, proasic3l, and fusion mixed signal fpgas. Fpga development using xilinx, altera intel, lattice and microsemi fpga devices. The kit dramatically reduces the design and verification portion of your project, whether its for automotive, consumer, wireless communications, video processing or another highvolume. May 28, 2014 11 actel fpgas actel fpga uses multiplexer based logic cells the multiplexerbased logic module is typically composed of a tree of 2to1 muxes. Actel was founded in 1985 and became known for its highreliability and antifuse based fpgas, used in the military and aerospace markets. May 31, 2000 actel designs, develops, and markets fpgas field programmable gate arrays and associated design and development software and programming hardware. The highperformance microsemi flashpro4 fpga programmer uses usb 2. Actel designer r12003 fpga development software release notes this document describes the new features and enhancements of the designer series development system r12003 release.
The actel flashpro programming system is a combination of actel flashpro software and a hardware programmer. Join actel and keil for a live webinar that introduces the keil microcontroller development kit. The granularity of a 2 input nand gate is meaningless in the fpga world, which is how the mfgs get away with such wildly optimistic numbers. Superpro is01 programmer has an inbuilt stapl player which can be used to program microsemi actel fpga chips. Libero integrated design environment is actel s comprehensive software toolset for designing with all actel fpgas, including actel s new smartfusion family, the worlds only fpga with hardwired arm cortexm3 and programmable analog. What are free tools for hdl development for fpga and asic. Nov 11, 2016 xilinx, altera, lattice semiconductors, all fpga vendors give away webpack versions of their fpga design tools. Concurrent realtime introduces fpga development platform.
Fpga vendors provide design software that support their devices. Explore, an easytouse pointandclick software tool that is integrated with the companys designer series development software is a pchosted. Leader of advanced development group for fpga division. Actels comprehensive fpga design and development software combines the latest design creation and designer physical implementation tools from actel plus bestinclass synthesis and verification tools from leading eda vendors into a single package. All applicants must have been exposed to full product lifecycle development and minimum 4 years of experience in fpga development. It also contains information about discontinued features and known limitations. Actels libero ide delivers industrys best mix of design tools. To reference an actual family, substitute the name of the actel device when.
Actel igloo lowpower fpgas bring reprogrammability, design security, integration, small form factor, and liveatpowerup operation to handheld portable applications. Application note introduction to actel fpga architecture. This guide contains information and procedures to assist designers in the design of actel devices using cadence cae software and the designer series software. The mss configurator provides graphical setup for current, voltage and temperature monitors, sample sequencing setup and postprocessing configuration, as well as digitaltoanalog dac output. The development board see see the figure contains an a3pe250 device in a pq208 package. A tutorial on incremental design using fpgas from actel ee.
Actel enhances designer fpga software design and reuse. Actel corporation is a supplier of innovative programmable logic solutions, including fieldprogrammable gate arrays fpgas based on antifuse and flash technologies, highperformance intellectual property ip cores, software development tools and design services, targeted for the highspeed communications, applicationspecific integrated. In his current role, he is involved with tactical and strategic support of development tools for actel fpga products. Able to troubleshoot across hardware, firmware and software domains.
For example, i have a spartan6 low end dev board and im using ise 14 version. Supporting the fast assembly and configuration of user designs, and providing seamless integration with actels comprehensive fpga design and development software, libero ide, coreconsole is available for free download from softcore early access will be available in q2 2007. Prior to accessing the microsemi soc customer portal, you must enable cookies in your web browser. The objective is to provide highly optimized software solutions for actels complete portfolio of fpga products, including the igloo, actel fusion and rtax families of fpgas. Fpga software development tools axi isnt the only alternative for an interface specification.
Process has been well known in the software field for a long time. Programmable logic design software fpga, cpld, epld fpga, cpld, pld design software for programmable logic. Click below to download previous issues or go to the overview page to subscribe and receive the newest issue. Actel has consistently developed software solutions for its fpga devices that allow designers to innovate and broaden their design goals, said jim davis, vice. There will likely never be a complete open source tool chain for fpgas unless we manage to develop an open source fpga architecture. A block diagram of a generic actel fpga is given in figure 1. The proasic3 lowcost, lowpower fpga family offers a breakthrough in power, price, performance, density, and features for todays most demanding highvolume applications. Opensource fieldprogrammable gate array fpga development. Comprehensive language support including verilog, vhdl. The fpga companies control the bitstream formats used to program their parts and they have onerous legal language in their user agreements that make it a rather dangerous proposition to try to develop open source tools by reverse engineering nobody wants to lose. Libero design environment supports actels mixedsignal fpga.
As an example, the output of module 3 is also connected to the input of module 1 by programming two crossantifuses and one horizontal antifuse. You should try to quantify your design size in terms of flip flops, 4input lookup tables and ram. Each io card requires an actel fpga to perform the io operations, for a total of three standalone fpga designs. Aug 03, 2004 the gate count in fpga mfg specs are notoriously overblown when compared to an asic design. Actel corp annual report regulation sk, item 405 10. Microsemi flashpro4 fpga programmer mouser electronics. Synplify pro me synthesis fully optimizes microsemi fpga device. No assurance can be given that actel s independent developers will be able to complete software andor hardware under development, or provide updates or customer support in a timely manner, which could delay future software or fpga releases and disrupt actel s ability to provide customer support services. Fred has over 25 years experience in semiconductor marketing and product management coming from national semiconductor, philips semiconductor, and lsi logic. Emulate your opencl software technology c accelerator code on an x86based host in. Alteras cyclone iii fpga development kit combines the largest density lowcost, lowpower fpga available with a robust set of memories and user interfaces.
Testing and programming actel field programmable gate arrays fpgas 7 this can be done by programming a special type of antifuse referred to as a horizontal antifuse. Best fpga development practices intuitive research. Actel s comprehensive fpga design and development software combines the latest design creation and designer physical implementation tools from actel plus bestinclass synthesis and verification tools from leading eda vendors into a single package. Actel corporation is a supplier of innovative programmable logic solutions, including fieldprogrammable gate arrays fpgas based on antifuse and flash technologies, highperformance intellectual property ip cores, software development tools and design services targeted for the highspeed communications, applicationspecific integrated. Opencl is an industry standard, cbased programming language that allows users to abstract away the traditional hardware fpga development flow and use a faster, higherlevel software development flow. The proasic3 lowcost, lowpower fpgas are based on nonvolatile flash technology and support 15,000 to 3,000,000 gates and up to 620 highperformance ios. I would like to share about information actel fpga, vhdl design. Document conventions the following conventions are used throughout this manual.
With the intel fpga sdk for opencl, you develop fpga designs in c using a highlevel software flow. Libero ide software release for designing with radtolerant fpgas, antifuse fpgas and. With extensive knowledge of fpga design and prototyping, services are delivered on time, within budget, and to the customers specifications. Flashpro fpga programmers microsemi soc programmers. Intel fpga development tools define your design methodology intel provides a complete suite of development tools for every stage of your design for intel fpgas, cplds, and socs. In 2000, actel acquired gatefield which expanded actel s antifuse fpga offering to include flashbased fpgas. Microsemi through its acquisition of actel in 2011 is the leading supplier of nonvolatile fieldprogrammable logic chips fpgas. Libero integrated design environment is actels comprehensive software toolset for designing with all actel fpgas, including actels new smartfusion family, the worlds only fpga with hardwired arm cortexm3 and programmable analog.
Proasic3 starter kit is designed for developers targeting the proasic3e family from actel. Jan 06, 2000 actel announced its interest in autogate last october, saying it wanted to beef up its capabilities for developing of nonvolatile field programmable gate arrays see oct. Lattice, microsemi and xilinx, all from a single rtl and constraint source. Actel corporation has announced a comprehensive design environment that fully supports implementation of the companys new mixedsignal analog and. Proasic3 microsemi soc fpgas field programmable gate. Concept engineering simplifies actels fpga design process. Oct 09, 2016 look nowhere but the vendors themself. Actels libero ide delivers industrys best mix of design tools, superior. Actels customers have come to expect the best in fpga synthesis over the years, said jim davis, vice president of software and systems engineering at actel. Comprehensive tool suite for embedded software development on intel soc fpgas. Openocd development lpc31 and actel fpga chain programming. The microsemi flashpro4 fpga programmer is the newest programmer supporting all fpgas in the igloo series, proasic3 series, fusion, and future generation flash fpgas.
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