1 – Fusion Device Family Overview
Introduction
The Actel Fusion® mixed-signal FPGA satisfies the demand from system architects for a device that
simplifies design and unleashes their creativity. As the world’s first mixed-signal programmable
logic family, Fusion integrates mixed-signal analog, flash memory, and FPGA fabric in a monolithic
device. Actel Fusion devices enable designers to quickly move from concept to completed design
and then deliver feature-rich systems to market. This new technology takes advantage of the
unique properties of Actel flash-based FPGAs, including a high-isolation, triple-well process and the
ability to support high-voltage transistors to meet the demanding requirements of mixed-signal
system design.
Actel Fusion mixed-signal FPGAs bring the benefits of programmable logic to many application
areas, including power management, smart battery charging, clock generation and management,
and motor control. Until now, these applications have only been implemented with costly and
space-consuming discrete analog components or mixed-signal ASIC solutions. Actel Fusion mixed-
signal FPGAs present new capabilities for system development by allowing designers to integrate a
wide range of functionality into a single device, while at the same time offering the flexibility of
upgrades late in the manufacturing process or after the device is in the field. Actel Fusion devices
provide an excellent alternative to costly and time-consuming mixed-signal ASIC designs. In
addition, when used in conjunction with the Actel or ARM-based soft MCU core, Actel Fusion
technology represents the definitive mixed-signal FPGA platform.
Flash-based Fusion devices are live at power-up. As soon as system power is applied and within
normal operating specifications, Fusion devices are working. Fusion devices have a 128-bit flash-
based lock and industry-leading AES decryption, used to secure programmed intellectual property
(IP) and configuration data. Actel Fusion devices are the most comprehensive single-chip analog
and digital programmable logic solution available today.
To support this new ground-breaking technology, Actel has developed a series of major tool
innovations to help maximize designer productivity. Implemented as extensions to the popular
Actel Libero® Integrated Design Environment (IDE), these new tools allow designers to easily
instantiate and configure peripherals within a design, establish links between peripherals, create
or import building blocks or reference designs, and perform hardware verification. This tool suite
will also add comprehensive hardware/software debug capability as well as a suite of utilities to
simplify development of embedded soft-processor-based solutions.
General Description
The Actel Fusion family, based on the highly successful ProASIC®3 and ProASIC3E Flash FPGA
architecture, has been designed as a high-performance, programmable, mixed-signal platform. By
combining an advanced flash FPGA core with flash memory blocks and analog peripherals, Fusion
devices dramatically simplify system design and, as a result, dramatically reduce overall system cost
and board space.
The state-of-the-art flash memory technology offers high-density integrated flash memory blocks,
enabling savings in cost, power, and board area relative to external flash solutions, while providing
increased flexibility and performance. The flash memory blocks and integrated analog peripherals
enable true mixed-mode programmable logic designs. Two examples are using an on-chip soft
processor to implement a fully functional Flash MCU and using high-speed FPGA logic to offer
system and power supervisory capabilities. Live at power-up and capable of operating from a single
3.3 V supply, the Fusion family is ideally suited for system management and control applications.
The devices in the Fusion family are categorized by FPGA core density. Each family member
contains many peripherals, including flash memory blocks, an analog-to-digital-converter (ADC),
high-drive outputs, both RC and crystal oscillators, and a real-time counter (RTC). This provides the
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ACTEL [ Actel Corporation ]
