Actel

ACTEL was founded in 1985 and is located in New York, USA. For the past 20 years, ACTEL has been working in the US military and aerospace industry and is prohibited from selling. Some special companies in the country use other means to purchase military-grade models. At present, ACTEL is gradually turning to civilian and commercial, in addition to the anti-fuse series, it also introduces the re-storable ProASIC3 series (for the automotive, industrial control, military aviation industry). The following are the unique features of ACTEL compared to other companies' FPGAs (ALTERA, Xilinx, and lattice).

1. The essential structure is different

ACTEL is based on flash structure. ALTERA, XILINX and Lattice all use SRAM structure, power loss data is lost, so a configuration chip is needed, and ACTEL does not need to be configured.

2. Security - can not be cracked

There are two secret security functions inside ACTELFPGA: one is 128-bit Flashlock encryption, and the other is 128-bit AES encryption (all freely set in the software), which truly protects your intellectual property. The Flashlock key is a protection chip that prevents others from performing, programming, and erasing. Chip erase rewrite can only be done with the correct 128-bit Flashlock key. The 64th power of 2 is already very large, and the 128th power of 2 is even bigger. Even if the luck is good, the Flashlock password is cracked, but the program code uses 128-bit AES encryption. If you use the fastest computer in the world, it will take 10 billion years. Therefore, the code of ACTEL can basically realize online transmission, even if people cut it off, it is useless. Some might say that with reverse engineering, the grinding chip is used to get the switch state. But ACTEL's transistors are all under 7 layers of metal copper. If the first 7 layers of metal are removed, the wiring structure and internal transistors are not destroyed. This is basically impossible. This is why all ACTEL is used in military and aviation.

3. Power on and run

Another advantage of ACTEL over other companies' FPGAs is that they run at power-up. This feature helps the initialization of system components, the processor wakes up the execution of emergency tasks, and it takes 0.2 seconds for ALTERA and XILINX FPGAs to power up to normal operation. This is why ACTEL is widely used in aviation or military fields. For example, in the non-stop charging system, ACTEL is used to power on. The car is running at a very fast speed on the highway, and in the far away charging system, the FPGA is in a power-down state. When approaching the toll zone, the FPGA starts working, so the design must meet the FPGA power-on operation, SRAM type The FPGA power-on configuration is 200MS, which is a bit unreasonable. The result may be: When the FPGA starts working, the car has already opened the RF area, and the data master station sent by the car cannot receive it.

4. A true single-chip solution

ACTEL is a flash architecture FPGA, and ALTERA and XILINX are both SRAM architectures, power loss data is lost, so generally need to add a configuration chip. Since ACTEL is a flash architecture FPGA, do not configure the chip and consume less power. ACTEL's FUSION series is internally equipped with analog function, internal current monitoring, voltage monitoring, 12-bit AD, RTC power-down wake-up, etc. The IGOOL series is tailor-made for handheld devices, with a static power consumption of 5 microwatts, the smallest The package is only 4mm*4mm, which is more than 500 times more than the industry's lowest power CPLD.

5. Impeccable stability

ACTEL has firmware immunity, that is, any high-energy neutron and a particle impact device have no effect, but SRAM type FPGA can not withstand the impact of high-energy particles, can not be suitable for harsh environments. At present, the "chang'er1" project undertaken by the Institute of Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences is the chip of the ACTEL series of anti-fuse series. This is also the advantage of ACTEL in the military and automotive industries.

6. Complete free development platform

The software is completely free, integrated with the industry's best comprehensive tool synplify, the best simulation tool MODESIM, etc., without any charge, all auto-installation, software development is simple, easy to use.

7.ACTEL contains ARM7 or CORTEX_M1 processor internally

FPGAs with M7 and M1 prefixes support ARM processors, that is, FPGAs can not only implement FPGA functions, but also ARM processors to achieve a combination of "FPGA+ARM", just like NIOS II in ALTETA.

8. Completely replace the industry's CPLD devices

ACTELFPGA has between 3 and 3 million gates. At the same price, we not only have all the functions of CPLD, but also have PLL, RAM, FIFO, 1K flashROM, 128-bit AES key, and absolute reliability. In this case, we have any reason not to use ACTEL.