By Chris Hall

     Actel is a key player in field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), but it’s up against the muscle of Xilinx and Altera, and the company needs to play a clever strategic game to differentiate itself from these two companies. It’s doing so with flash-memory based devices, known as non-volatile FPGAs, and by offering what it claims is the lowest power consumption of any FPGA in the market. Actel also claims that its flash-based approach is uniquely suited to the radiation tolerant demands of military and aerospace applications. As well, the company makes available its Libero design software, for free, as also ARM processor technology.




     Actel is clearly determined to play a long game, and we spoke in Hong Kong with Rick Lain, director of sales for the Asia Pacific, about the company’s technology, its market differentiation, and the changing picture for FPGAs in the chip industry.







Q: Clearly the FPGA and PLD (programmable logic device) markets are highly competitive. How is Actel, as a smaller player than Xilinx and Altera, managing to differentiate its product offerings? With your IGLOO line, Actel is targeting low power implementations, for example. We always assume that portable devices in particular require this type of solution, so I assume that that is a key target market.

A: We really focus on non-volatile, flash-memory based FPGAs, as opposed to SRAM based FPGAs, but low power consumption is also a key differentiator for our FPGA products. In terms of low power, the IGLOO series of FPGAs is our key driver. Again, IGLOO is flash-based, and essentially what we did is take our PA3 product and use UMC’s low power process there. That brought power consumption down to 5 microwatts (5W), which is significantly lower than any of the other FPGA vendors can manage.

Q: So you’re claiming that with IGLOO you are offering the lowest power in the FPGA industry?

A: Yes. Low power is our key differentiator in the PLD market. Power consumption has two components, static and dynamic, and IGLOO provides an optimal design solution for both modes.
     We also provide the Fusion series of mixed-signal FPGAs, as another key differentiator in the market. As well, we are providing ARM embedded processor support. Initially we provided support for the ARM7, but now we also support the ARM Cortex M-1.
     So these three leading features of our product line-up represent the really key product differentiation that we bring to the market. We are not trying to be another Xilinx or another Altera. We are really trying to pursue our own path for bringing value to the market.
     The low-power factor is central, for Actel. Not only do we have the lowest power FPGA in the market, we also provide a “power-driven” place and route tool in our Libero IDE 8.1 tool, which can help to reduce dynamic power consumption by as much as 30%. We also focus on smart IP that enables low power. We are working with ARM and its Cortex M-1 processor, which is optimized for FPGAs and low power consumption. We want to be known as a low power programmable solutions provider.
     Interestingly, when customers require a low-power solution, they also tend to demand a small form factor, particularly for portable device applications. For this type of product, a compact form factor is very important. So we also provide leading edge packages, at just 4x4 millimeters, for example.

Q: And with your non-volatile differentiation, your implementation of flash memory in your FPGA devices, what would you claim to be the key advantages there?

A: There may be other single-chip solutions in the market, such as CPLDs or even stacked-die FPGAs, but because we use integrated flash-memory solutions, our devices offer considerable advantages over those of the competition. Actel devices function and “go live,” as soon as power is applied to the board. Our devices do not have to go through a configuration cycle, for example. As single-chip devices, flash-based solutions are also inherently more secure than other solutions since. We also have built-in mechanisms to protect IP. Neither we nor the customer has to worry about it being pirated, which is a big concern, these days, in the market. A lot of our customers are afraid that their system will be copied if they go to a sub-contractor for manufacturing, for example.
     Flash-based FPGAs are also significantly more reliable than SRAM based devices. For instance, they are “neutron immune” for applications involving travel into space. In space, outside the protective Earth environment, there is significant radiation, including bombardment by neutrons. In this situation, the switching state of programmable devices could be altered, if they are not flash or anti-fuse based, leading to what are known as “firm errors.” Anti-fuse devices, on the other hand are only one-time programmable. And flash, because of its construction, is much more immune to radiation than is SRAM. And the way that we construct our cells also makes them much more immune. There are a number of things we do, in fact, to make our devices more secure than the SRAM based type of FPGA. That explains why Actel is a lot stronger in the aerospace market, compared to our competitors.
     There is also the question of current leakage. A typical SRAM cell actually comprises six transistors, versus the flash cell which has only one transistor. When you have more and more transistors, while at the same time you drive down the geometry of the chip, current leakage becomes a huge issue. This is the issue the big players in the industry are facing, now.
     And not only do they have potentially higher current leakage per cell because they have a lower geometry. When you put a lot of cells together, to assemble gates, the overall combined circuit consumes a lot more power, a higher static current. That in turn creates heat. When our IGLOO FPGAs manage to run at only 5W (microwatts) that also means they are running cooler.
     Actually we performed an experiment in battery life where we compared our IGLOO device with our own ProASIC3 solution as well as devices from our competitors. This test was based on 80% idle time and 20% operating time at 100MHz, which is a fairly common operating speed for portable applications. Basically, this test showed that we could deliver a 10X advantage in battery life.
     I mentioned that we also provide compact FPGAs. We want to be known not just as the provider of the lowest power FPGAs, but also the smallest form factor FPGAs. Our 4x4mm package is the smallest in the industry, and the industry is demanding that kind of compactness. The latest PDA phones, for example, could have boards with up to 12 layers. Facing that kind of requirement, the vendors want to have logic, but they want it to be in a very small form factor. We are talking about devices that not only can handle email but also have MP3, camera, video and GPS functions ---- all in the one device. The board has to be very sophisticated, and this is a target market for us.
     In addition, we are providing the industry’s first “power-driven” layout design tool, Libero IDE 8.1. Right now, all the tools available from the PLD vendors are based on timing driven Place and Route. We take the design tool one further step and at the end of the layout process revisit the design and optimize it for low power consumption. And believe it or not, we provide our Libero tool free of charge.

Q: What kind of reception has Libero had in the industry?

A: When we conduct industry seminars on our IGLOO product and make it clear that power consumption is down to 5æW (microwatts), naturally a lot of design engineers want to know how we do that, and that’s when we point out the advantages of using the Libero tool, a type of tool they cannot get from other vendors. With our Libero tool, designers can reduce dynamic power consumption by as much as 30%.