Actel Opens European Processor R&D Centre in Dublin

DUBLIN, Ireland, March 20, 2006 — In tandem with Ireland's Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Micheál Martin TD, Actel Corporation today announced it has established a European Processor Development Center in Dublin with the support of IDA Ireland. An important extension to the company's global research and development efforts, the Center has been established to define and develop new processor and processor-related technologies in support of the company's Programmable System Chip (PSC) strategy.

Minister Martin said, "This Center is a welcome addition to the integrated circuit industry in Ireland as the quality of the R&D and the level of technical innovation is cutting edge. It is an ideal fit with the initiatives of the Government and IDA Ireland to attract strategic R&D investments from international companies like Actel who are leaders in their business."

An integral part of the company's Programmable System Chip (PSC) strategy is Actel's CoreMP7 soft ARM7 family processor optimized for use in the company's field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs). The powerful combination of the Actel Fusion PSC or the company's ProASIC3 flash-based family and CoreMP7 offers designers the flexibility and fast time to market of programmable logic with the industry standard in processor technology.

"Driven by a vision for embedded systems based on programmable platforms, Actel founded its European Processor Development Center in Ireland, an important addition to the company's worldwide R&D resources," said John East, President and CEO, Actel. "The combination of the in-depth processor knowledge in Dublin and Actel's industry experience will result in innovative system solutions, such as the CoreMP7 soft ARM7 processor core, which will sustain FPGA and programmable system chip solutions for a wide range of applications."

Fares Mubarak, Senior Vice President, Engineering, Actel said, "The availability of designers with in-depth intellectual property (IP) and microprocessor (MPU) experience made Dublin an appropriate choice for Actel's European Processor R&D Center. The successful definition, development and deployment of the company's award-winning CoreMP7 and user-friendly CoreConsole IP Deployment Platform (IDP) were the direct result of this group's efforts. For those customers exploring real-world embedded design leveraging soft processors with FPGAs, our Dublin research team plans to continue our ongoing R&D activities to create an industry-leading user experience."

About Actel

Actel Corporation is the leader in single-chip FPGA solutions. The company is traded on the NASDAQ National Market under the symbol ACTL and is headquartered at 2061 Stierlin Court, Mountain View, Calif., 94043-4655. For more information about Actel, visit http://www.actel.com. Telephone: 888-99-ACTEL (992-2835).