Actel Brings Industry’s Most Popular 32-Bit Embedded Processor to the Masses

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., October 24, 2005 —Actel today announced the immediate availability of CoreMP7, a soft ARM7 family processor optimised for use in Actel field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), bringing the flexibility and fast time to market of programmable logic to this industry standard in processor technology. Under an agreement announced in March 2005 with ARM, Actel is offering the 32-bit ARM7 family microprocessor for use in its products free of license fees, greatly reducing the cost of entry and increasing designer access to system on chip (SoC) development with the ARM7 family. Exploiting the benefits of Actel’s flash-based architecture, CoreMP7 will be available for use in ARM-ready versions of Actel’s low-cost ProASIC3 family of FPGAs. The devices are optimal solutions for value-based consumer, industrial, automotive and high-reliability applications.

“Actel is living up to its promise to bring the ARM7 to the masses,” said Dennis Kish, vice president of marketing of Actel. “With the release of CoreMP7, we are extending the reach of the ARM architecture to include markets that could not previously afford individual access to this technology. Actel, in close collaboration with ARM, has combined the flexibility of Actel FPGAs with ARM’s industry-standard ARM7 processor family to produce a complete and powerful, yet easy to use, product for every designer.”

“The unrivaled security features of Actel’s nonvolatile FPGAs have enabled a soft IP version of the ARM7 architecture to be made available in a programmable logic device for the first time,” said Mike Inglis, executive vice president of marketing, ARM. “In addition, the unique synergy between the ARM7 and Actel’s ProASIC3 family has opened the opportunity to extend this technology to an even wider range of applications and volume points.”

Optimised ARM7 Provides Maximum Speed and Minimum Size
Actel has optimised the 32-bit ARM7 to maximise the speed and minimise the size of the processor for use with its FPGA devices. Operating at up to 25MHz, CoreMP7 is well suited for use in a number of applications, including digital cameras, kitchen appliances, automotive traction control systems, car infotainment systems, robotics and medical equipment.

Comprehensive and Low-Cost Tool Support
Actel’s CoreMP7 is supported by the large ecosystem of tools and knowledge that currently exists for the ARM7 family, far surpassing the level of support offered by competitors. Additionally, industry-leading ARM RealView® development tools are available from Actel. CoreMP7 will also be supported by a complete development environment, including Actel’s new CoreConsole tool (Also announced today; see related press release, “CoreConsole Tool Simplifies Creation of FPGA-Based System-Level Designs”), Actel’s Libero Integrated Design Environment (IDE), a development kit and a host of third-party tools.

M7 ProASIC3 Delivers Combo of Price, Performance and Security
The ARM-ready M7 ProASIC3 devices provide an attractive combination of price and performance with support for up to three million system gates. Leveraging the unparalleled security benefits of the flash-based ProASIC3 family, the M7 ProASIC3 devices incorporate Actel’s proprietary FlashLock technology and are virtually immune to tampering, assuring users that valuable IP will not be compromised or copied. Additionally, the single-chip devices provide the firm-error immunity and live at power-up (LAPU) capabilities that are inherent to all Actel FPGAs.