Actel introduced Silicon Sculptor 3, a field-programmable gate array (FPGA) programming tool. The software includes a high-speed USB 2.0 interface that allows a customer to connect as many as 12 programmers to a single PC. Further, Silicon Sculptor 3 is compatible with adapter modules from Silicon Sculptor II, thereby preserving a customer's investment and enabling a seamless upgrade to this latest generation of the tool.

Leveraging an antifuse-based Axcelerator FPGA device at the heart of the system, Silicon Sculptor 3 offers 4x the memory size compared with the previous generation programmer as well as faster data processing. With 64 MB of internal memory, the Silicon Sculptor 3 allows concurrent programming of highly dense parts that could only be programmed non-concurrently with prior programmers, which means higher throughput is now possible for even the densest of parts. This additional memory will also support the larger algorithms of planned future parts. With a USB 2.0 interface, Silicon Sculptor 3 systems can be connected to as many as 12 PCs through a series of nested high-speed USB 2.0 hubs, enabling an easily expandable, low-to-medium volume production programming system to be dynamically assembled.

Protection features include, overcurrent and power failure shutdowns as well as electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection. A banana jack for ESD wrist straps is also included. Actel offers support of all device packages including, but not limited to PLCC, PQFP, VQFP, QFN, BGA, FBGA and CSP. Silicon Sculptor 3 is the optimal low-cost programmer for Actel's entire portfolio of FPGAs, including the standard and ARM-enabled versions of both the ProASIC3 family and the Actel Fusion Programmable System Chips. It also supports the company's entire line of products including the antifuse-based RTAX-S product offerings.

Availability

Silicon Sculptor 3 is available now for $3,400. The tool is compliant with Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional and Windows XP Professional.