Product category: Programmable Logic Devices
News Release from: Actel Europe | Subject: eX FPGAs
Edited by the Electronicstalk Editorial Team on 26 November 2003
Antifuse FPGAs protect IP
in Game Boy addon
X-traFun is using eX FPGAs to perform control, interface and security functions in its Bluetooth wireless PDA cartridge for Nintendo's Game Boy Advance handheld game console
X-traFun has selected Actel's eX field-programmable gate array (FPGA) device to perform control, interface and security functions in the X-traFun Bluetooth wireless PDA cartridge for Nintendo's Game Boy Advance handheld game console. Leveraging Actel's FuseLock antifuse technology, the eX FPGA secures X-traFun's proprietary IP from reverse engineering.
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Additionally, the eX FPGA's small form factor and high device utilisation enabled a significant reduction in total system cost and 5x reduction in size and weight for the production version of the X-traFun cartridge.
The eX FPGA's high-performance will allow users to enjoy next-generation interactive gaming and wireless web, e-mail and chat applications on any Game Boy Advance handheld game console.
"The design security, ease of integration and component count savings offered by Actel's eX FPGA made it the ideal platform for bringing the X-traFun cartridge to a mass market audience", said Mark Kramer, President and CEO of X-traFun.
"With board space at a premium, we used one eX device to run all the glue logic for all the embedded device communications, lowering our component count by a factor of five".
"In selecting our eX FPGA for its Game Boy cartridge, X-traFun recognised that design security is a critical consideration when creating portable consumer applications with high-volume potential", said Barry Marsh, Vice President of Product Marketing at Actel.
Further reading
FPGA storage is unaffected by moisture
Actel has received moisture-sensitivity level 2 certification of its eX family of field-programmable gate arrays in chip-scale packaging
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X-traFun's Bluetooth wireless PDA cartridge works with the full family of Game Boy Advance handheld consoles enabling seven simultaneous users to interact within a local wireless peer-to-peer network.
The handheld game device can synchronise with a Bluetooth-enabled PC, send and receive e-mail, send text messages to a cell phone and, eventually, receive streaming video at several tens of frames per second.
The cartridge supports Secure Digital (SD) cards and accessories such as digital cameras, memory cards, global positioning systems and MP3 players.
X-traFun is partnering with various retail entertainment product distributors to advertise and sell its product and services.
The X-traFun wireless PDA Game Boy cartridge will be available first in North America.
The X-traFun cartridge will be comparably priced with standard Game Boy cartridges available today.
The product is available now to business-to-business (B2B) clients for test and evaluation.
Offering a low-power sleep mode for extra battery power savings, the eX family of devices is optimised for portable applications.
Additionally, the single-chip solutions are competitively priced compared with complex programmable logic devices (CPLDs), low-density gate array ASICs and two-chip FPGA alternatives.
The eX family is currently being designed into cable and xDSL modems, digital photography applications, MP3 Internet recorders/players, personal digital assistants and digital set-top boxes.
The combination of eX and simple-to-use Actel software tools results in faster design turns and time to market.
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