Actel Announces Immediate Availability of 90 Intellectual Property Cores for New ProASIC3 and ProASIC3E FPGA Families

With an Extensive DirectCore and CompanionCore IP Portfolio, Designers Can Quickly Implement Designs Leveraging Advanced Device Features

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., January 24, 2005 — Actel Corporation (Nasdaq: ACTL) today announced the availability of 90 intellectual property (IP) cores to support its new ProASIC3 and ProASIC3E device families, demonstrating the company's commitment to the successful deployment of its new field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) (See separate press release entitled, "Actel's Third-Generation Flash-Based Devices Set the Bar at $1.50 as Industry's Lowest Cost FPGA Solution"). The ported cores leverage the advanced features of the ProASIC3/E devices, including 66 MHz 64-bit PCI performance, on-chip user flash memory, enhanced I/O and memory, and secure in-system programmability (ISP). Delivering a broad IP library at the time of product introduction enables Actel's customers to begin designing complete systems with the ProASIC3/E devices immediately.

"Our new ProASIC3 and ProASIC3E devices deliver very low cost and high performance, and we are dedicated to helping customers successfully integrate IP onto these world-class nonvolatile, reprogrammable devices right out of the gate," said Yankin Tanurhan, senior director, applications and IP solutions at Actel. "With 90 IP cores and a host of value-added design services offered through our Solution Partner Program, customers can accelerate time to market and minimize design costs and risks for ProASIC3/E designs immediately."

Comprehensive IP and Design Support for ProASIC3/E Families

Actel has ported more than 20 of its DirectCores to the ProASIC3/E devices, including CorePCI and CoreDDR, a DDR SDRAM memory controller that utilizes the DDR-capable I/Os on the ProASIC3E devices. Actel's CompanionCore partners have ported nearly 70 cores. All DirectCores and CompanionCores come complete as pre-implemented, synthesizable building blocks and have been thoroughly tested and verified in Actel FPGAs. Together, the DirectCores and CompanionCores span a variety of markets including telecommunications, consumer multimedia, networking, industrial control, encryption, automotive, military/aerospace and computing. The 90 optimized DirectCore and CompanionCore solutions offered today include:

• 10/100 and Gigabit Ethernet MAC controllers; Packet-Over-SONET, HDLC controllers; and PL3 and Utopia Level 3 interfaces for use in communications applications, such as wireless LANs, xDSL, SONET/SDH and DWDM.
• 8051, Z80 and 6809 8-bit MCUs; Serial Communication, SPI, I2C, SDLC; and CAN and USB controllers for use in a variety of embedded systems applications.
• SDR and DDR memory controllers; forward error correction (FEC) technology, such as Reed Solomon encoders and decoders; a digital video broadcast (DVB) modulator, and encryption cores for use in consumer multimedia and personal security devices.

Pricing and Availability

Actel DirectCore IP prices start at $500 and the cores can be ordered through Actel's sales offices. Free evaluations are available for download from Actel's Web site: http://www.actel.com. Actel CompanionCore products can be ordered directly from the partner. All cores are offered with a free evaluation version so a designer can review the features of the IP without risk. Actel DirectCores and CompanionCores are available as RTL, netlist and evaluation versions and include a software testbench.

Pricing for the ProASIC3 devices starts at $1.50, with seven devices priced under $10 each in 250K quantities. For further information about pricing and availability, please contact Actel.

Actel DirectCore and CompanionCore Solutions

Actel offers its own system-level IP solutions, called DirectCores, specifically designed and optimized for use with Actel devices. The company also offers third-party IP blocks, called CompanionCores, that have been tested and verified in Actel FPGAs. Covering communications, consumer, automotive, industrial, and military and aerospace applications, the cores offer a variety of functions, including communication controllers and interfaces, processors and peripherals, bus interfaces and memory controllers, as well as encryption, multimedia and error correction.

Actel DirectCores and CompanionCore products offer seamless implementation through Actel's hardware and software development tools, documentation, and quality service and support, thereby streamlining the design process and enabling faster time-to-market while minimizing design costs and risks.

About ProASIC 3/E

The industry's lowest cost FPGA solution, Actel's new live at power-up, low-power, highly secure ProASIC3/E devices deliver PCI performance and are the industry's first FPGAs with on-chip user flash memory. The nine devices in the ProASIC3/E families, ranging in density from 60,000 to 3-million system gates, deliver technology-leading integrated secure in-system programmability (ISP). Building on the success of Actel's flash-based ProASIC Plus family, the fine-grained, single-chip architecture and nonvolatile flash configuration memory make Actel's ProASIC3/E offering a strong ASIC alternative. The ProASIC3/E design methodology supports popular FPGA and ASIC tool flows, reducing time to market and permitting designers to migrate easily between FPGA and ASIC solutions for applications in the consumer, networking and communications, in-cab automotive, computing and avionics markets.

About Actel

Actel Corporation is a supplier of innovative programmable logic solutions, including field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) based on antifuse and flash technologies, high-performance intellectual property (IP) cores, software development tools and design services, targeted for the high-speed communications, application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) replacement and radiation-tolerant markets. Founded in 1985, Actel employs more than 500 people worldwide. The Company is traded on the Nasdaq National Market under the symbol ACTL and is headquartered at 2061 Stierlin Court, Mountain View, CA, 94043-4655. Telephone: 888-99-ACTEL (992-2835). Internet:: http://www.actel.com.

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