Sanyo Denki Selects Actel Fusion for Industrial Encoder

High-Precision Design Benefits from Low-Power Consumption and High Accuracy Levels of Mixed-Signal FPGAs

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. -- September 08, 2008 — Actel Corporation (NASDAQ: ACTL) today announced that Sanyo Denki Co. Ltd., a major supplier of factory automation equipment in Japan, has chosen mixed-signal Actel Fusion field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) for implementation in its new RA035 position detection device (encoder) for servo motors for industrial applications. Selected for its low power, high accuracy and integration capabilities, the 600,000-gate AFS600 Actel Fusion device serves as the main process circuit, converting signals from the resolver into position data. In addition to a more than 50 percent reduction in power consumption versus alternative solutions, the RA035 reduces hazardous waste and eliminates the need for maintenance by enabling the detection of the absolute motor position without a battery. The Fusion-based RA035 also provides ecological advantages—reducing energy consumption equivalent to 190 tons of CO2 emissions per year.

Sanyo Denki is considering the installation of mixed-signal Fusion FPGAs for future products, following the successful development of the RA035. The company is also evaluating Actel's ARM processor-enabled FPGAs for their next-generation designs.

"Reducing power to make our products environmentally friendly is one of our principles for product development. The adoption of Actel's single-chip, mixed-signal Fusion FPGA in our new RA035 has enabled dramatic reductions in power consumption compared to alternative solutions," said Mr. Makiuchi, Servo Systems Division, 1st Design Dept. Chief engineer, Sanyo Denki. "Significantly reducing product size and component count, one Fusion device can also manage multiple functions, such as flash ROM, CPU, and communications gate array, each of which used to require an individual IC. Due to their leading power, flexibility, integration and accuracy advantages, we plan to continue using Actel's flash-based FPGA technologies for our next-generation designs."

"Sanyo Denki's selection of our Actel Fusion FPGAs underscores the power consumption and power management advantages that mixed-signal, flash-based FPGAs provide for today's power-sensitive industrial applications," said Masa Katayama, area sales director, Japan, at Actel. "For high-precision industrial applications, Actel's mixed-signal Fusion FPGA offers the low-power consumption, intelligent system and power management, high accuracy and integration required by the growing community of global industrial designers."

About the Sanyo Denki RA035

The RA035 is the resolver-method absolute encoder, which enables output an absolute position information without a battery. The resolution is 131,072 divisions per rotation and the measuring range of multiple rotation is 65,536.

About Sanyo Denki Co. Ltd.

Sanyo Denki Co. Ltd. is committed mainly to development, production and sales of cooling fans, servo systems, stepping systems, and uninterruptible power systems (UPS) on a global scale since its establishment in 1927. Headquartered in Tokyo, the company deploys branches and sales offices in Japan as well as offices of Sanyo Denki Group in East Asia, North America and Europe. For further information about Sanyo Denki, please visit http://www.sanyodenki.co.jp.

About Actel

Actel is the leader in low-power and mixed-signal FPGAs and offers the most comprehensive portfolio of system and power management solutions. Power Matters. Learn more at http://www.actel.com.

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