FPGAs fuse ARM Cortex-M3 with programmable analogue
30 April 2010
SmartFusion is claimed by Actel to be the world’s first intelligent mixed-signal FPGA. Already available in production quantities, SmartFusion devices feature Actel’s FPGA fabric, a complete microcontroller subsystem built around a hard ARM Cortex-M3 processor and programmable analogue blocks on a flash process.
The combination of three programmable elements - logic, a microcontroller subsystem and analogue - makes the SmartFusion family a fullycustomisable, easy-to-use system design platform. Embedded designers can now optimise hardware / software trade-offs on the fly without board-level changes.
In the SmartFusion device, all the data transferred from the processor to the FPGA or from the analogue to the processor or between the FPGA and the analogue is on-chip SmartFusion devices evolved from the company’s first Fusion mixed-signal FPGAs, introduced in 2005. The devices feature Actel’s flash-based ProASIC 3 FPGA architecture. Built on an advanced 130-nm CMOS process, Actel offers densities ranging from 60K to 500K system gates, with 350 MHz performance and up to 204 I/Os.
Intelligence is added to the FPGA in the form of a microcontroller subsystem that features a hard ARM Cortex-M3 processor running at 100 MHz. A full complement of standard peripherals and features include: Multi-layer AHB communications matrix with up to 16 Gbps throughput; 10/100 Ethernet MAC with RMII interface; Two of each: SPI, I2C, UART, 32-bit Timers; Up to 512 KB flash memory and 64 KB of SRAM; External memory controller (EMC); and 8-channel DMA controller.
The Analog Compute Engine (ACE) performs sample sequencing and computation, which offloads the ARM Cortex-M3 processor from analogue initialisation and processing. The programmable analogue system features ADCs and DACs with 1 percent accuracy; Up to three 12-bit ADC with up to 600 Ksps sampling rate; Up to three 12-bit first order sigma delta DACs; Up to ten 50 ns high-speed comparators; and Multiple integrated temperature, voltage and current monitors.
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