Out in Front: July 4, 1996

The AT6000LV FPGA family includes four devices with 4000 to 20,000 gates. Standby current is less than 200 µA, and operating current is approximately 2 mA/MHz when active. You can fully reconfigure the SRAM-based device in 0.8 msec for 5000 gates or partially reconfigure individual cells in 200 nsec. Partial reconfiguration can take place while the device is operating, reducing or eliminating downtime between configurations.

Design tools for the device include a component generator that lets you create 50 datapath functions, including accumulators, adders, comparators, counters, multipliers, RAM, ROM, and subtracters. The parameterized functions allow you to vary the word width and other properties and then select whether to create a design optimized for speed or power consumption. According to the chip's maker, the device suits coprocessor applications, including FIR filters, FFTs, and discrete-cosine transforms.

The FPGA family is available in a 1-mm-thick, PCMCIA Type 1-compliant, surface-mount package. Prices range from $15 (1000) for the 4000-gate AT6002LV to $140 (1000) for the 20,000-gate AT6010LV.

—by Doug Conner

Atmel Corp, San Jose, CA. (800) 292-8635, fax (408) 441-0732, http://www.atmel.com.