Actel Introduces New Mixed-Signal Fusion PSC for System Management
Actel® Corp. announced its single-chip Actel Fusion™ Programmable System Chip (PSC) that can perform system management functions within electronic systems. These tasks include power and thermal management, data logging and system diagnostics within a variety of markets, including telecommunications, industrial, automotive, aerospace, military and medical.
While many designs can require hundreds of components to handle system management, Actel claims that its Fusion PSC is the industry's only mixed-signal field-programmable gate array (FPGA) that can integrate these system management functions and provide programmable flexibility – all in a single chip. As a result, Fusion PSCs is claimed to offer cost and space savings of 50% or greater relative to current implementations.
"We believe there will be a dramatic acceleration in the adoption of highly flexible and integrated solutions in lieu of utilizing hundreds of discrete components for system management," said Dennis Kish, Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Actel. "Our Fusion mixed-signal FPGAs enable us to address the global market at a time when designers are searching for system management solutions that reduce system cost while also improving reliability."
Increased costs and risks are driving the adoption of standards, such as the Micro Telecom Computing Architecture (MicroTCA). To meet this growing trend, Actel also announced several MicroTCA reference designs. Actel believes these free, tested reference designs will drive MicroTCA adoption and provide templates for the customization of system management functions. To support system management applications like MicroTCA, Actel also offers its portfolio of intellectual property (IP) cores for processing, analog and memory interface and communications.
To speed development time, Actel offers the System Management Development Kit. Equipped with a Fusion PSC, this complete prototyping and development kit includes a set of key demonstrations, including power-up detection, power sequencing, system diagnostics and remote communications.
The Fusion PSC System Management and MicroTCA reference design information is available for free via the company's website. Available today, the System Management Development Kit costs $895.
