Actel Enhances Designer FPGA Software

Tool Delivers Ease-of-Use, Increased Performance and Reduced Design Time For Next-Generation Devices

SUNNYVALE, Calif., June 10, 2002 - Actel Corporation (Nasdaq: ACTL), a supplier of innovative programmable logic solutions, today announced it has significantly enhanced its Designer field-programmable gate array (FPGA) software solution. With this release, Actel Designer features two new capabilities - SmartPower, a robust power analysis tool, and Netlist Viewer, a utility that allows designers to display the netlist in a hierarchical manner. These enhancements enable customers to create designs for Actel's next- generation FPGA devices in less time. Additionally, the performance of the timing analysis and layout utilities has increased substantially - up to 50 percent faster on specific customer designs.

"Actel has consistently developed software solutions for its FPGA devices that allow designers to innovate and broaden their design goals," said Jim Davis, vice president of software engineering at Actel. "By continuously improving our software and making it easier to use, we have made it possible for most designers to become proficient users of our solutions, obtaining high-quality results in less time. With the addition of the new SmartPower and Netlist Viewer capabilities, we continue to address our goal of providing designers with leading-edge solutions that speed time-consuming design tasks."

Enhancements to Actel Designer

The new version of Actel Designer software includes a state-of-the-art power analysis tool, SmartPower, which enables Actel customers to quickly identify power consumption problems within a component and then optimize accordingly. This feature offers a distinct advantage over competitive power analysis tools that estimate the power consumption of overall designs rather than components. SmartPower also enables the designer to inspect detailed hierarchical reports of the dynamic power consumption of a design. This includes design level power summary, average switching activities, ambient and junction temperature readings.

The addition of Netlist Viewer allows users to display the netlist in a hierarchical manner, trace signals and explore each level of the design. This new capability assists designers in meeting area and timing goals and aids in critical path identification. Actel Designer supports established electronic design automation (EDA) standards, such as Verilog/VHDL/EDIF netlist formats. The new Netlist Viewer enables designers to view a graphical representation of the netlist, display the netlist in a hierarchical manner or search for instances, nets and ports. These three viewing options - a schematic view format, a hierarchical view format and a search view format - enable designers to easily explore each level of the design. In conjunction with existing Designer features, such as PinEdit, ChipEdit and Timer, the Netlist Viewer assists designers in meeting area and timing goals by helping with critical path identification.

About Actel Designer

Actel Designer software contains user-friendly productivity tools to accelerate and automate the system design process without forcing the designer to relinquish control. With both automated and manual flows, Designer delivers automatic place and route, provides support for fixed pins, creates customized macros and ensures accurate timing throughout the development cycle. Designer works seamlessly with best-in-class synthesis, schematic and simulation tools from leading EDA vendors, including Cadence, Innoveda, Mentor Graphics, Model Technology, SynaptiCAD, Synopsys and Synplicity. Designer is available in two different versions: Platinum and Gold. Actel Designer Platinum is a complete software solution with unlimited design capacity and customer support. Actel offers its Designer Gold version for users designing system-level devices of 50,000 gates or less.

Pricing and Availability

Pricing for Actel Designer Platinum version begins at $995. The Designer Gold version R1 2002 will be available on the Actel Web site on July 1, 2002. Current customers on maintenance will be upgraded to version R1 2002 at no additional cost. Actel Designer is also now available for Windows XP operating systems. For more information, please contact Actel.

About Actel

Actel Corporation is a supplier of innovative programmable logic solutions, including field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) based on antifuse and flash technologies, high-performance intellectual property (IP) cores, software development tools and design services targeted for the high-speed communications, application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) replacement and radiation-tolerant markets. Founded in 1985, Actel employs approximately 500 people worldwide. The Company is traded on the Nasdaq National Market under the symbol ACTL and is headquartered at 955 East Arques Avenue, Sunnyvale, Calif., 94086-4533. Telephone: 888-99-ACTEL (992-2835). Internet: http://www.actel.com.

Editor's Note: The Actel name and logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Actel Corporation. All other trademarks and servicemarks are the property of their respective owners.
 

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