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Actel is dedicated to becoming the field programmable gate array
(FPGA) provider of choice. The company's FPGAs are used by manufacturers
of communications, computer, industrial control, military/aerospace,
and other electronic systems to bring complex, high-density digital
designs to market rapidly. Actel, the world's leading supplier of
FPGAs based on antifuse technology, has just introduced ProASIC,
the industry's first family of non-volatile, reprogrammable high-density
devices based on Flash technology, and is preparing to introduce
a reprogrammable SRAM-based FPGA line later this year.
Founded in 1985 and headquartered in Sunnyvale, CA, Actel Corporation
is listed on the Nasdaq under the symbol ACTL. The company had 1998
revenues exceeding $150 million and has 450 employees in locations
worldwide.
Evolving Markets for Programmable
Devices Recognized
Actel's antifuse products continue to lead the market in the "one-time-programmable"
(OTP) category. However, as new markets and applications evolve,
Actel has become convinced that any one, single product technology
cannot always provide the best fit for every application. Reprogrammable
devices are gaining broad acceptance and offer a different set of
benefits than OTP devices. Many new and changing markets have created
growing opportunities for a company that offers technological choice.
The company introduced the first 0.25-micron non-volatile and reprogrammable,
Flash family in June 1999 and by the end of the year, Actel expects
to also introduce reprogrammable SRAM FPGAs. Actel will become the
only company to offer FPGA products in three technologies: high-performance
antifuse; single-chip reprogrammable Flash; and dense, low-cost
SRAM.
Actel's New Non-Volatile,
Reprogrammable Flash Gate Array
In August 1998, Actel entered into an agreement with GateField
Corporation gaining exclusive sales and marketing rights to GateField's
small process geometry ProASIC reprogrammable gate arrays. Actel
has just introduced this unique line of low power, Flash-based devices
to help designers meet the challenges of providing less-expensive,
complex IC solutions.
ProASIC
These unique ProASIC devices offer Actel customers a non-volatile,
reprogrammable, logic-device solution based on Flash technology.
Actel's first ProASIC family consisting of seven devices will range
in size from 98,000 system gates to 1,100,000 system gates. These
are live-at-power-up, very low power devices with an ASIC-like architecture
that become the first reprogrammable devices to easily accommodate
users to "drop in" soft IP (intellectual property) cores.
Actel's Antifuse FPGA Product
Families
Actel now has several FPGA families of non-volatile, antifuse devices
as well as a line of single-chip, Flash-based reprogrammable devices
to help designers meet the challenges of providing faster, cheaper
and more-complex IC solutions. The antifuse families are supported
by the Actel DeskTOP Series, an integrated suite of design software.
Each antifuse family has a "synthesis friendly" architecture
that simplifies designs, reduces design time and thereby shortens
a product's ultimate time to market.
SX
Actel's SX family, introduced in April 1998, features an innovative
sea-of-modules architecture that provides an extremely high performance
ASIC alternative. SX devices are well suited for the stringent performance
demands of the high-speed telecommunications and data networking
markets. The SX family remains one of the fastest FPGA families
in the world and offers all the advantages of Actel's low-cost,
non-volatile technology. Today, SX is, perhaps, the only series
of FPGA devices in the world capable of delivering 66 MHz PCI performance
in a soft-core implementation. Currently, the SX family consists
of four devices, featuring densities of 8,000 to 32,000 logic gates,
with lower cost, higher density 0.25-micron products of up to 72,000
gates planned for later in 1999.
MX
Actel's MX family is a line of low-cost, single-chip, mixed voltage
FPGAs is positioned to address 5-volt applications. It is the fastest
ramping family of products in Actel's history-reaching total sales
of two million units just 13 months after availability of production
devices and only 18 months after its introduction in October 1997.
The MX family offers ASIC-like price with the time-to-market and
flexibility advantages of programmable logic. MX consists of six
devices, featuring densities of 2,000 to 36,000 logic gates. The
largest MX devices include system logic integration functions, such
as embedded SRAM and decode logic, used by designers for integrating
disparate functions in data networks, telecommunications and industrial
control applications.
Other Families-1200XL & 3200DX Integrator and ACT 3
The 3200DX family offers over 40,000-gate capacity and 3Kbits of
dual-port SRAM combined with system logic integration functions
and performance used in complex, high-speed designs for applications
such as networking, telecommunications, co-processing and digital
signal processing. Actel's 1200XL family provides optimized combinations
of high performance and low cost at capacities spanning 2,500 to
8,000 gates.
The ACT 3 family consists of five devices ranging from 1,500 and
10,000 programmable gates and supports processor speeds of up to
150 MHz. The ACT 3 PCI family consists of three fully PCI-compliant
devices with 4,000 to 10,000 usable gates and up to 250 MHz clock
rates.
Actel Devices for HiRel Military
and Space Applications
Actel is the world leader in delivering high-reliability programmable
devices for military/aerospace applications. Although it has been
in this market segment for only eight years, Actel is already designed
into more than 150 high-profile, high-reliability systems, including
the NASA Space Shuttle, the Hubbell Telescope repair missions, the
Mars Rover and the International Space Station.
Actel devices are aboard many of the commercial, civilian and military
satellite and deep-space missions launched worldwide as well as
land- and air-based military applications. Because of their unique
antifuse silicon architecture, all of Actel's device families are
being used with increasing frequency in secure, high-reliability
and/or extreme environment applications. Actel fully supports existing
qualification standards and testing criteria for HiRel, RadHard
and RadTolerant applications.
Actel's RadHard devices offer the highest radiation survivability
levels of any FPGA available today. Actel's recently introduced
HiRel SX family includes RadTolerant versions, which are capable
of up to 100K rads of total dose immunity. Actel's HiRel devices
meet the requirements for applications that do not require radiation
survivability. Actel offers commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) devices
ranging from commercial, industrial and military temperature range
tested plastic devices, to MIL-STD-883 qualified ceramic devices
for military equipment and aircraft applications. Actel has achieved
full QML certification in the first quarter of 1999 and all plastic
devices are now QML certified.
Products and Technology on
the Horizon
In addition, the introduction of Actel's line of reprogrammable
SRAM devices is planned. Based on a unique, patented device architecture,
this family is expected to combine competitive SRAM FPGA features,
performance and device size with the lowest prices in the market.
Actel's Protocol Design Services
Group
FPGAs are becoming more dense and their design more complex as designers
integrate system-level logic functionality and IP onto a single
piece of silicon. FPGA suppliers who possess system-level design
expertise to offer to their customers will have a distinct advantage
in the market. With its acquisition of the GateField Design Services
Business Unit in August 1998, Actel became the first FPGA provider
to offer such expertise. The Actel Protocol Design Services Group
has expanded the Company's ability to support a greater portion
of customers' overall design and risk management. Protocol is located
in a secure facility in Mt. Arlington, New Jersey, and is certified
to handle government, military and proprietary designs. Protocol
provides varying levels of design services, including design methodology
and tool consulting; turnkey FPGA and ASIC design; IP development
and integration; board and system design; software design and implementation;
and development of prototypes, first articles and production units.
Actel Design Tools
Actel ASICmaster Design Software
An important partner to the ProASIC device family, Actel's first
reprogrammable solution, is the ASICmaster™ design suite. The
ASICmaster suite, based on a complex, multi-million gate-capable
ASIC tool, includes timing-driven place and route and a number of
other sophisticated design and verification tools, that helps speed
the design process. The ASICmaster suite helps ProASIC device users
narrow the distinction between FPGAs and ASICs, because ASICmaster
tools work equally well as part of an existing ASIC design methodology
or in a traditional FPGA design flow.
Actel DeskTOP Integrated Design Software
Early in 1999, Actel introduced the industry's first free integrated
suite of design tools, the Actel DeskTOP, in partnership with electronic
design automation (EDA) software tool providers, Synplicity and
VeriBest. The basic Actel DeskTOP suite is being complemented in
June by the introduction of two very powerful, yet reasonably-priced,
advanced design tool suites, DeskTOP Pro and DeskTOP Open, offering
support for larger devices and higher level design requirements.
Actel Designer Family
Actel has developed several specialized design tools that are generally
recognized as among the easiest to use and most complete high-level
design tools for FPGA devices.
In 1995, Actel introduced the Designer Series FPGA toolset - a
revolutionary software suite built on an object-oriented database
that helps optimize and simplify FPGA circuit design, implementation
and testing. The Designer Series has continuously evolved since
its introduction and has recently been integrated into the Actel
DeskTOP software tools to efficiently perform the suite's place
and route tasks. Through its DirectTime™ option, Designer Series
is the first FPGA toolset to enable fully-deterministic FPGA designs.
Unlike other FPGA design tools that rely on manual placement, DirectTime
ensures that pre-route specified timing delays are accurately implemented
in the final design.
Actel Silicon Explorer-Helping Accelerate Design Time-to-Market
Building on the Designer Series of tools, a hardware/software design
verification and debugging tool called Silicon Explorer™ was
brought to market in 1996. Silicon Explorer allows real-time internal
probing within programmed Actel antifuse or next-generation SRAM
devices to greatly reduce the verification/debugging process and
offer another major assist in helping speed customers' products
to market.
EDA Industry Alliances
To underscore its commitment to open, seamless technology transfer,
Actel has formed alliances with leading EDA vendors. Actel provides
support to these partners with software and technical assistance,
sales training and cooperative sales efforts. By leveraging the
design tool configurations made possible by these alliances, Actel's
users can take their designs from initial concept through design
completion on EDA systems of their choice.
Actel Manufacturing
Actel reaps the benefits of greatly reduced manufacturing overhead
and increased flexibility from its position as a "fabless"
semiconductor company. The company has developed a broad list of
solid third-party manufacturing agreements with major semiconductor
companies including: Matsushita (Japan), Chartered Semiconductor
(Singapore), LMFS (Manassas, Virginia), Winbond (Taiwan and Pualla,
Washington), UMC (Taiwan) as well Siemens Flash manufacturing in
Dresden, Germany through Actel's ProASIC alliance with Gatefield.
These manufacturing relationships have assured a steady supply of
silicon for all of its customers' production needs while permitting
Actel to focus on investing in product research and development,
software design tools, customer support and marketing.
Sales and Distribution Channels
Actel products are distributed to North American commercial markets
through a powerful distribution network including industry leaders
that includes: Arrow/Schweber Electronics, Pioneer Standard and
Unique Technologies, a North American division of Veba Electronics
Group. Actel utilizes dedicated field application engineers and
a team of manufacturers' representatives throughout the U.S. and
Canada.
Actel's regional office in the United Kingdom, supplemented by
sales offices in the UK, Germany, France, Italy and Sweden, manages
a network of distributors throughout the European and Middle Eastern
markets. Actel has Sunnyvale-directed sales offices in Japan, Korea,
Hong Kong and mainland China as well as distributors in all active
countries throughout the Asia-Pacific region.
Safe Harbor Statement
This news release contains "forward looking statements,"
which are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private
Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. "Forward-looking
statements" describe future expectations, plans, results, or
strategies, and are generally preceded by words such as "future"
or "forward-looking," "plan" or "planned,"
"will" or "should," "expect" or "expected,"
"anticipates," or "projected." You are cautioned
that such statements are subject to a multitude of risks and uncertainties
that could cause future circumstances, events, or results to differ
materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements,
including the risks that the development of antifuse, SRAM and Flash
process technologies mentioned will take longer to develop and/or
will not be developed as soon as currently anticipated. For a discussion
of other factors that could affect the accuracy of the forward-looking
statements, please see "Risk Factors" in Actel's most
recent Forms 10-K and 10-Q, which will be provided to you free of
charge upon request. You should consider these factors in evaluating
the forward-looking statements included herein, and not place undue
reliance on such statements. The forward-looking statements are
made as of the date hereof, and Actel undertakes no obligation to
update such statements.
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