PR Newswire
September 22, 2003

ACTEL GEARS UP FOR NEW AUTOMOTIVE SOLUTIONS

Availability of SX-A and MX Devices Round Out the Industry's Most Reliable FPGA Offering Targeted for Automotive Applications

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., September 22, 2003 - Emphasizing its commitment to high-reliability applications, Actel Corporation (Nasdaq: ACTL) today announced it has expanded its line of automotive solutions with the availability of antifuse-based SX-A and MX field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) in extended automotive temperature range versions. Qualified to operate at ambient temperatures from -40 degrees C to 125 degrees C and junction temperatures up to 150 degrees C, the full line of SX-A and MX devices functions at the highest temperatures among competitive FPGA solutions. This latest offering extends the performance, cost and security benefits of Actel's mid-density SX-A and low-power MX antifuse devices to the automotive development community. Rounding out the industry's widest offering of packages specifically targeted for automotive applications, Actel's SX-A and MX devices are optimized for in-cab control and interconnect functions for a range of telematic applications, such as navigation, speech recognition, control/comfort systems, passenger monitors and heads-up displays.

"Actel has built a reputation within the military, space and avionics markets as a leading provider of highly reliable products for use in some of the world's harshest environments," said Barry Marsh, vice president of product marketing at Actel. "With the availability of the automotive grade SX-A and MX FPGAs, Actel further extends the same level of quality and proven technology to designers within the automotive market. Actel's complete line of feature-rich automotive solutions allows designers to speed time to market without compromising cost or performance, and offers improved durability for more advanced converged in-cab and under-the-hood applications."

Based on Actel's nonvolatile antifuse technology, the SX-A and MX FPGA families provide an inherently secure, low-cost, single-chip solution. Featuring up to 72,000 typical gates, or 36,000 application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) gates, the SX-A devices deliver system performance of up to 250 MHz. The MX devices exhibit low power consumption at 5.0 Volts, making them reliable single-chip ASIC alternatives.

The SX-A and MX automotive solutions are supported by a development kit customized for use with Actel's SX-A family of antifuse-based FPGAs. A broad portfolio of IP specifically designed and optimized for in-cab automotive applications, including CAN, I2C interface, SPI, Z80CPU, MC-ACT-6809 CPU, Reed Solomon and DES/3DES/AES also supports the devices. By providing customers with pre-designed IP, Actel helps reduce design time and provides the ability to integrate multiple design elements into a one-chip solution, reducing an application's component count and cost.

Pricing and Availability

The full-line of automotive SX-A and MX devices are available now with pricing starting at $2.50 each for MX devices and $3.00 each for SX-A devices in quantities of 250K. For more information about Actel's automotive solutions, please visit the Actel Website at http://www.actel.com/products/auto/index.html.