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General Description
Actel’s SX family of FPGAs features a revolutionary
sea-of-modules architecture that delivers next-generation
device performance and integration levels not currently
achieved by any other FPGA architecture. SX devices greatly
simplify design time, enable dramatic reductions in design
costs and power consumption, and speed time-to-market for
performance-intensive applications.
Actel’s RadTolerant (RT) and HiRel versions of the SX Family
of FPGAs offer all of these advantages for applications such as
commercial and military satellites, deep space probes, and all
types of military and high reliability equipment.
The RT and HiRel versions are fully pin compatible allowing
designs to migrate across different applications that may or
may not have radiation requirements. Also, the HiRel devices
can be used as a low cost prototyping tool for RT designs.
The programmable architecture of these devices offer high
performance, design flexibility, and fast and inexpensive
prototyping—all without the expense of test vectors, NRE
charges, long lead times, and schedule and cost penalties for
design modifications that are required by ASIC devices.
Fast and Flexible New Architecture
Actel’s SX architecture features two types of logic modules,
the combinatorial cell (C-cell) and the register cell (R-cell),
each optimized for fast and efficient mapping of synthesized
logic functions. Optimal use of the silicon is made by locating
the routing and interconnect resources in the metal layers
above the logic modules, enabling the entire floor of the
device to be spanned with an uninterrupted grid of
fine-grained, synthesis-friendly logic modules (or
“sea-of-modules”) which reduces the distance signals have to
travel between logic modules.
To minimize signal propagation delay, SX devices employ both
local and general routing resources. The high-speed local
routing resources (DirectConnect and FastConnect) enable
very fast local signal propagation that is optimal for fast
counters, state machines, and datapath logic. The general
system of segmented routing tracks allows any logic module in
the array to be connected to any other logic or I/O module.
Within this system, propagation delay is minimized by limiting
the number of antifuse interconnect elements to five
(typically 90 percent of connections use only three antifuses).
The unique local and general routing structure featured in SX
devices gives fast and predictable performance, allows
100 percent pin-locking with full logic utilization, enables
concurrent PCB development, reduces design time, and
allows designers to achieve performance goals with a
minimum of effort.
Further complementing the SX’s flexible routing structure is
a hard-wired, constantly-loaded clock network that has been
tuned to provide fast clock propagation with minimal clock
skew. Additionally, the high performance of the internal logic
has eliminated the need to embed latches or flip-flops in the
I/O cells to achieve fast clock-to-out or fast input set-up times.
SX devices have easy-to-use I/O cells that do not require HDL
instantiation, facilitating design re-use and reducing design
and verification time.
Device Description
The RT54SX16 and A54SX16 devices have 16,000 available
gates and up to 177 I/Os. The RT54SX32 and A54SX32 have
32,000 available gates and up to 225 I/Os. All of these devices
support JTAG boundary scan testability.
All of these devices are available in Ceramic Quad Flat Pack
(CQFP) packaging, with 208-pin and 256-pin versions. The
256-pin version offers the user the highest I/O capability,
while the 208-pin version offers pin compatibility with the
commercial Plastic Quad Flat Pack (PQFP-208). This
compatibility allows the user to prototype using the very low
cost plastic package and then switch to the ceramic package
for production. For more information on plastic packages,
refer to the SX family FPGAs data sheet at:
http://www.actel.com/docs/datasheets/A54SXDS.pdf
The A54SX16 and A54SX32 are manufactured using a 0.35µ
technology at the Chartered Semiconductor facility in
Singapore. These devices offer the highest speed
performance available in FPGAs today.
The RT54SX16 and RT54SX32 are manufactured using a 0.6µ
technology at the Matsushita (MEC) facility in Japan. These
devices offer levels of radiation survivability far in excess of
typical CMOS devices.
Radiation Survivability
Total dose results are summarized in two ways. First by the
maximum total dose level that is reached when the parts fail
to meet a device specification but remain functional. For
Actel FPGAs, the parameter that exceeds the specification
first is ICC, the standby supply current. Second by the
maximum total dose that is reached prior to the functional
failure of the device.
The RT SX devices have varying total dose radiation
survivability. The ability of these devices to survive radiation
effects is both device and lot dependent. The customer must
evaluate and determine the applicability of these devices to
their specific design and environmental requirements.