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Actel Corporation
Industry Integrated Circuits
Founded1985
Successor Microsemi
Headquarters
San Jose, California
,
United States
Products FPGAs, Embedded Processors
RevenueIncrease US$191 Million (FY 2009) [1]
Decrease US$-21.3 Million (FY 2009) [1]
Decrease US$-46.2 Million (FY 2009) [1]
Total assetsDecrease US$307 Million (FY 2009) [2]
Total equityDecrease US$233 Million (FY 2009) [2]
Number of employees
500+ [3]
Website www.actel.com www.microsemi.com

Actel Corporation (formerly NASDAQ:ACTL) was an American manufacturer of nonvolatile, low-power field-programmable gate arrays ( FPGAs), [4] mixed-signal FPGAs, [5] and programmable logic solutions. [6] [7] [8] It had its headquarters in Mountain View, California, with offices worldwide. In November 2010, Microsemi acquired Actel for $430 million. [9] [10] [11] [12]

History and competition

Actel was founded in 1985 and became known for its high-reliability and anti-fuse-based FPGAs, used in the military and aerospace markets. [13]

Actel acquired GateField in 2000, which expanded Actel's anti-fuse FPGA offering to include flash-based FPGAs. Actel announced in 2004 that it had shipped the one-millionth unit of its flash-based ProASICPLUS FPGA. [14]

In 2005, Actel introduced a new technology known as Fusion to bring FPGA programmability to mixed-signal solutions. Fusion was the first technology to integrate mixed-signal analogue capabilities with flash memory and FPGA fabric in a monolithic device. [15]

In 2006, to address the tight power budgets of the portable market, Actel introduced the IGLOO FPGA. The IGLOO family of FPGAs was based on Actel's nonvolatile flash technology and the ProASIC 3 FPGA architecture. [16] Two new IGLOO derivatives were added in 2008: IGLOO PLUS FPGAs with enhanced I/O capabilities, and IGLOO nano FPGAs, a low power solution at 2 μW. A nano version of ProASIC3 also became available in 2008.

In 2010, Actel introduced the SmartFusion line of FPGAs. SmartFusion includes both analogue components and a programmable flash-based logic fabric within the same chip. SmartFusion was the first FPGA product to additionally include a hard ARM processor core. [17]

Altera and Xilinx are the other key players in the market, however, their main focus is on SRAM FPGAs. Lattice Semiconductor is another competitor. [18] [19]

Technologies

Actel's portfolio of FPGAs is based on two types of technologies: anti-fuse-based FPGAs (Axcelerator, SX-A, eX, and MX families) and flash-based FPGAs (Fusion, PolarFire, IGLOO, and ProASIC3 families).

Actel's anti-fuse FPGAs have been known for their nonvolatility, live-at power-up operation, [20] single-chip form factor[ clarification needed][ citation needed], and security[ citation needed]. Actel's flash-based FPGA families include these same characteristics[ citation needed] and are also reprogrammable and low power.[ citation needed]

Actel also develops system-critical FPGAs (RTAX and ProASIC3 families), including extended temperature automotive, military, and aerospace FPGAs, plus a wide variety of space-class radiation-tolerant devices. These flash and anti-fuse FPGAs have high levels of reliability[ citation needed] and firm-error immunity.[ clarification needed][ citation needed]

Controversy

In March 2012, researchers from the University of Cambridge discovered a backdoor in the JTAG interface of the ProASIC3 family of low-powered FPGAs. [21] They defended their theory at a cryptography workshop held in Belgium in September 2012. [22]

References

  1. ^ a b c Actel (ACTL) annual SEC income statement filing via Wikinvest
  2. ^ a b Actel (ACTL) annual SEC balance sheet filing via Wikinvest
  3. ^ "Corporate Factsheet" (PDF). Actel Corporation. August 2009. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2007-09-28. Retrieved 2010-01-11.
  4. ^ Dylan McGrath, EETimes. " Actel FPGAs cut power drain to target mobile market Archived 2015-05-10 at the Wayback Machine." Aug 30, 2006. Retrieved June 12, 2012.
  5. ^ Paul Buckley, EETimes. " Micrium supports Actel SmartFusion FPGAs Archived 2013-07-03 at the Wayback Machine." March 8, 2010. Retrieved June 12, 2012.
  6. ^ EETimes India. " Actel designs IP core for nonvalatile FPGAs Archived 2015-05-10 at the Wayback Machine." Mar 23, 2006. Retrieved June 12, 2012.
  7. ^ EETimes Asia. " Seiko Epson goes with Actel FPGAs for multimedia viewers Archived 2013-05-28 at the Wayback Machine." Dec 10, 2008. Retrieved June 12, 2012.
  8. ^ EETimes Asia. " Free controller cores roll for Actel FPGAs Archived 2013-05-28 at the Wayback Machine." Feb 8, 2007. Retrieved June 12, 2012.
  9. ^ Microsemi press release " Microsemi Completes Tender Offer for Actel Corporation Archived March 5, 2011, at the Wayback Machine"
  10. ^ Mark Lapedus, EE Times. " Microsemi buys Actel for $430 million." Oct 4, 2010. Retrieved Jan 10, 2013.
  11. ^ MELISSA KORN, Wall Street Journal. " Microsemi to Buy Rival Actel for $430 Million." Oct 4, 2010. Retrieved Jan 10, 2013.
  12. ^ "Microsemi buys Actel for $430 million". eetimes.com.
  13. ^ Andrew Hamm, SJ Business Journal. " The sky's the limit for Actel chips in planned European satellites." August 1, 2003. Retrieved January 11, 2010.
  14. ^ Company Release. " Actel Achieves Key Milestone with its Cost-Effective, Flash-Based FPGAs; Company Ships More Than 1 Million Units Archived August 29, 2008, at the Wayback Machine." March 29, 2004. Retrieved January 11, 2010.
  15. ^ EETimes. " Actel Claims To Usher In Era Of 'Programmable System Chip'." July 18, 2005. Retrieved January 11, 2010.
  16. ^ Company Release. " Actel Brings Portable Market In from the Cold With Industry's Lowest Power FPGA Family Archived July 7, 2011, at the Wayback Machine." August 28, 2006. Retrieved January 11, 2010.
  17. ^ EETimes. " Actel rolls mixed-signal FPGA with hard ARM core." March 2, 2010. Retrieved May 25, 2010.
  18. ^ Electronics Weekly. " FPGA / PLD." Retrieved June 13, 2012.
  19. ^ John Edwards, EDN. " No room for Second Place." Jun 1, 2006. Retrieved Jan 10, 2013.
  20. ^ "Introduction To Actel FPGA Architecture PDF | PDF | Logic Gate | Field Programmable Gate Array". Scribd. Retrieved 2023-08-30.
  21. ^ Sergei Skorobogatov. " Breakthrough silicon scanning discovers backdoor in military chip"
  22. ^ CHES 2012 " Workshop on Cryptographic Hardware and Embedded Systems"

External links

Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/?title=Actel&oldid=1206542584"