Actel Delivers SX-A FPGAs Qualified To Military Specifications

DSSC-Approved, QML-Certified Devices Provide Nonvolatility, Flexibility, Security and Reliability for Military, Aerospace and Avionics Markets

SUNNYVALE, Calif., OCTOBER 7, 2002 - Emphasizing its commitment to military and other high-reliability applications, Actel Corporation (Nasdaq: ACTL) today announced the availability of its single-chip, high-performance SX72A and SX32A antifuse field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) qualified to military specifications. Actel also announced the Defense Supply Center Columbus (DSSC) approval to ship the A54SX32A and A54SX72A under standard military drawing (SMD) numbers 5962-015180 and 5962-005430, respectively. Featuring up to 72,000 typical gates, or 36,000 application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) gates, Actel's new military-qualified FPGAs deliver system performance of up to 250 MHz with guaranteed support for 33 MHz PCI at case temperatures ranging from -55°C to +125°C. These devices are suitable for a wide range of military, aerospace and avionics applications, including radar, command and control, ground-based communications and advanced weapon control systems.

"For military projects in which quick prototyping and fast turnaround times are mandatory, designers are looking for a reliable and flexible solution without the high non-recurring engineering costs associated with ASICs," said Jon Ewald, director of product marketing at Actel. "Actel has long been committed to providing high-performance, nonvolatile FPGA products for high-reliability applications. With today's announcement, designers of military hardware will be hard pressed to find more suitable devices that not only meet their system density, performance, security and reliability requirements, but do so using the fewest number of components and the least amount of board real estate while reducing overall systems cost."

The new SX-A solutions provide designers with a versatile, cost-efficient, single-chip offering when combined with Actel's intellectual property (IP) cores, such as CorePCI and Core1553BRT. For example, Actel provides an integrated solution with the Core1553BRT and customizable gates on a single chip. Unlike application-specific standard product (ASSP) 1553B approaches that require separate board components, the Actel offering can be incorporated into the rest of the system design quickly without long design cycles or expensive non-recurring engineering costs.

Design Security
Antifuse FPGAs, such as Actel's SX-A devices, offer levels of design security beyond SRAM-based FPGAs and conventional ASIC solutions. Military planners need not fear having their electronic equipment compromised if lost due to attrition. As there are no configuration boot PROMs or bitstreams that can be intercepted and decoded, the SX72A and SX32A are extremely secure, thereby preventing copying or reverse engineering of the design. For more information regarding the fundamentals of security issues and secure FPGA solutions, go to the Actel Security Resource Center at http://www.actel.com/products/security.

Pricing and Availability
Fully qualified SX72A and SX32A production quantities are available now. Software support is provided by the Libero integrated design environment. For further information about the pricing of Actel's military-qualified FPGAs, please contact Actel.

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 approximately 500 people worldwide. The Company is traded on the Nasdaq National Market under the symbol ACTL and is headquartered at 955 East Arques Avenue, Sunnyvale, Calif., 94086-4533. Telephone: 888-99-ACTEL (992-2835). Internet: http://www.actel.com.

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