Date: 18/02/2009

Actel unveil low cost IGLOO nano FPGA starter kit

Actel has released a new low-cost starter kits for the company's -low-power IGLOO nano FPGAs. This kit is priced at very affordable price of $49.95.
The IGLOO nano kits can be used for prototyping designs targeted to IGLOO nano FPGAs or lower cost ProASIC3 nano FPGAs in all logic densities. IGLOO nano and ProASIC3 nano devices are footprint compatible between families, enabling flexibility in device selection. Customers can order the kits online from Actel distributors namely Mouser Electronics, Future Electronics and Avnet-Memec, or directly contacting Actel sales.

"If you're a designer of portable devices, this kit will get your product into the market very quickly, and allow you to stay power-, price- and size-competitive," said Rich Kapusta, Actel's vice president of marketing and business development. "Whether you're designing a cool handheld product that requires a tiny 3 mm x 3 mm chip, or a portable medical product that requires more density and performance, Actel has the widest selection of nano-power, nano-priced, nano-sized devices to meet power-conscious application needs."

The IGLOO nano starter kit includes a development board featuring an IGLOO AGLN250V2-ZVQG100 device, a programming stick, user's guide, tutorial and design examples. Intended for use with Actel's Libero development tools, the kit offers simple connections to LEDs and switches to implement a sample design with all I/Os available for connection to external systems or applications. The board is programmed via a USB connection, through the programming stick attached to the IGLOO nano board. The IGLOO nano board contains a separate USB connection to a UART for implementing a hyper terminal connection to a personal computer, allowing data to flow to and from the computer. This feature enables sophisticated data control of a programmed application running on the IGLOO nano device.

Actel website is www.actel.com