News and New Products

FPGA-development card includes RAM, programmer

By Warren Webb, Technical Editor -- EDN, 9/4/2007

Claiming all the features necessary for developing reprogrammable-microcontroller applications, Domain Technologies recently announced a development card for Actel ProASIC3 FPGAs. Measuring only 2.4×1 in., the standard A3P-MRAM (magnetoresistive-random-access-memory)-1000 development card comes with an Actel A3P1000, 512 kbytes of 35-nsec nonvolatile MRAM, and an onboard device programmer. The high-speed MRAM device stores both programs and data, eliminating the need for flash-programming algorithms and boosting performance.

You perform all FPGA-device programming and software debugging of implemented microcontroller designs through the A3P-MRAM's built-in USB interface. The onboard device programmer is compatible with the STAPL (Standard Test and Programming Language) files generated by Actel’s Libero integrated development environment. You use the same onboard device programmer and mini-B USB interface for accessing the A3P-MRAM's onboard JTAG emulator and debugger.

The A3P-MRAM-1000 sells for $750 and is available from stock. For smaller development applications Domain Technologies offers a lower cost version with an installed Actel A3P250. The A3P-MRAM-250 costs $640. The company ships each unit with stand-alone FPGA-device programming software and a mini-B USB cable.