Actel Drives Flash Into Automotive Applications

ProASIC^PLUS Flash-based FPGAs Add Reprogrammability to Industry's Broadest Line of Automotive Offerings

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., February 9, 2004 - Actel Corporation (Nasdaq: ACTL) today announced that it has added its nonvolatile, flash-based ProASIC Plus field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) in extended automotive temperature range versions to its successful line of automotive solutions. The addition of its reprogrammable, single-chip ProASIC^PLUS FPGAs rounds out Actel's automotive FPGA product portfolio with densities up to 1-million system gates, making it the industry's broadest automotive offering. Actel's ProASIC^PLUS automotive devices are optimized for telematics and other in-cab applications that require flexible, high-reliability solutions, including navigation, speech recognition, passenger control and comfort systems, intelligent occupant sensors and heads-up displays. Further, the tamper-resistant nature of Actel's flash and antifuse technologies also makes Actel's automotive line a suitable platform for developing occupant safety systems, electronic engine control modules for camless engine control units (ECUs) and other under-the-hood powertrain management systems.

"Due to its low power, reprogrammable, live at power-up features and tamper-resistant capabilities, we are seeing a growing demand among our customers for flash-based FPGA technology for use in a wide range of applications, including in-cab automotive telematics and engine control," said Barry Marsh, vice president of product marketing at Actel. "Therefore, with the addition of our successful flash-based ProASIC^PLUS FPGAs to our broad portfolio of automotive products, customers can confidently choose the nonvolatile FPGA with the range of features that best suits their design requirements."

Actel's ProASIC^PLUS FPGAs have already been utilized in automotive applications. Life Racing, the electronics design arm of AER (Advanced Engine Research Ltd.), used an APA450 device to enable unprecedented flexibility and performance in an automotive ECU. With Actel's in-system programmability (ISP), Life Racing was able to replace off-the-shelf Time Processor Unit (TPU) controllers with a single FPGA, reducing component count, saving board area and minimizing debug requirements. Overall, implementing a flexible hardware solution enabled Life Racing to shorten software development time and speed overall time to market.

The ProASIC^PLUS automotive solutions are supported by the industry's most comprehensive portfolio of IP cores specifically designed and optimized for in-cab and under-the-hood automotive applications, including LIN, CAN, SPI, 8051, Z80, 6809, Reed Solomon and DES/3DES/AES. By providing customers with pre-verified IP, Actel helps reduce design time and provides the ability to integrate multiple design elements into a one-chip solution, reducing an application's overall component count and cost.

About Actel's Automotive Solutions

Ranging in density from 3,000 to 1-million system gates, the industry's broadest portfolio of automotive FPGA solutions, Actel's automotive products include its antifuse-based eX, MX and SX-A families and its flash-based ProASIC^PLUS family. These offerings extend the inherent low power, high performance, low cost and security benefits of Actel's nonvolatile, single-chip technologies to the automotive development community. Qualified to operate at temperatures from -40 degrees C up to 150 degrees C, the automotive devices from Actel function at some of the highest temperatures among competitive solutions. Actel's automotive FPGAs are optimized for in-cab control and interconnect functions for a range of telematics and other in-cab applications that require flexible, high-reliability solutions.

Pricing and Availability

The full-line of automotive ProASIC Plus devices are available now with pricing starting at $5.40 each in quantities of 250K. For more information about Actel's automotive solutions, please visit the Actel Web site at http://www.actel.com/products/auto/index.html.

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 2061 Stierlin Court, Mountain View, CA, 94043-4655. Telephone: 888-99-ACTEL (992-2835). Internet: http://www.actel.com.

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