Actel Introduces Web-Based Program for Fast Prototype Delivery

Customers Can Request Free Programmed Antifuse FPGAs for Delivery within 24 Hours

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., November 1, 2004 - Actel Corporation (Nasdaq: ACTL) today unveiled its new Online Protoyping Service (OPS), a Web-based sample delivery program. Designed to make it easy to evaluate and prototype with no up-front investment, the new OPS program allows designers to request free samples of Actel-programmed field-programmable gate array (FPGA) devices via a Web interface. The OPS program currently supports Actel's antifuse-based Axcelerator, SX-A, eX and MX families. Actel guarantees 24-hour delivery for North American customers and delivery within 48 to 72 hours for customers in Europe and Asia. Customers interested in receiving programmed samples can provide a completed design file via the Web at http://www.actel.com/OPS.

"By providing free samples via the Internet, this program greatly benefits our customers by drastically reducing their overall hardware and prototype silicon investments," said Saloni Howard-Sarin, director of antifuse and tools marketing at Actel. "With the convenient and easy-to-use OPS program, customers don't have to contact sales or issue a purchase order in order to obtain pre-programmed FPGAs. And with delivery of devices within 24 hours, we're giving our customers a significant head start on their next-generation designs."

Based on a 0.15-micron, seven-layer metal antifuse process, the Axcelerator family, with devices ranging in density from 125,000 to 2-million system gates, delivers over 500 MHz operation and up to 100 percent resource utilization. Built upon the company's AX architecture, Axcelerator FPGAs avoid in-rush current spikes, simplify system power supply design and generally offer lower standby and dynamic power consumption than competing solutions.

The SX-A family features up to 108,000 system gates, or 36,000 application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) gates, and delivers system performance of up to 250 MHz. The SX-A family offers I/O capabilities that provide full support for hot swapping and is also 66 MHz PCI compliant.

The low-power eX family of devices is optimized for portable applications and is competitively priced compared with complex programmable logic devices (CPLDs), low-density gate array ASICs and two-chip FPGA alternatives.

The MX family, with density ranging from 3,000 to 54,000 system gates, provides performance up to 250 MHz, are live at power-up and require up to five times lower stand-by power consumption than other 5-volt FPGA devices.

Benefits of Actel's Antifuse Devices

Actel's live at power-up, single-chip, antifuse-based Axcelerator, SX-A, eX and MX FPGAs offer benefits that SRAM-based offerings and conventional ASIC solutions are unable to offer, including design security and immunity to firm errors. Nonvolatile antifuse-based FPGAs offer levels of design security beyond conventional SRAM-based FPGAs and ASIC solutions, enabling designers to safeguard against common security problems, including overbuilding, cloning, reverse engineering and anti-tampering. Firm errors, which occur when high-energy neutrons generated in the upper atmosphere strike the configuration cells of SRAM-based FPGAs, can be impossible to prevent. However, because the antifuse configuration cannot be altered once programmed, firm errors are nonexistent with Actel devices.

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 more than 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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