Latest Technical Details About Embedded

FPGA Configuration Memory

Atmel's AT18F Low Cost configuration Family can be used to configure low Cost SRAM FPGAs as well as higher density high performance FPGAs from Xilinx. The AT18F Family is offered in Densities of 1 Mb up to 8 Mb and can be used to configure both Spartan and Virtex family of FPGAs. This family has true In-System Programmable (ISP) capability and is compliant with IEEE 1532 programming Standard. Atmel's AT18F family is supported with easy to use Configuration programming Software (CPS) and is recommended for new FPGA designs. Atmel's small form factor packages are ROHS compliant and reduce the amount of board Space and at the same time help accelerate time to market by providing a system level drop in solution for popular FPGA based systems.

Atmel's popular AT17LV FPGA Configurator EEPROM Memories can be used with Atmel's FPSLIC™ devices and any SRAM-based FPGA from any supplier, including Atmel's own AT6000 and AT40KxxAL FPGA family, as well as products from Xilinx, Altera and Lattice Semiconductor. They come in densities from 65K to 32 Mb and are reprogrammable at 5V or 3.3V, using an industry-standard 2-wire serial bus. New small footprint 8-pin packages have recently been added to this family of devices. Check out our packaging guide for an overview of product offerings.

SPLD/CPLD

LOGIC DOUBLING™? SEE FOR YOURSELF!

Atmel's EPLD product line comprises of two major categories: Simple and the higher density Complex Programmable Logic Devices (SPLDs and CPLDs).

Atmel SPLDs: Industry Standard
Atmel's SPLD products consist of industry standard 16V8, 20V8 and 22V10s in a variety of voltage and power-saving options. Atmel offers low-voltage, zero-power and quarter power versions as well as our proprietary "L" automatic power down low-power devices including the Battery Friendly ATF22LV10CQZ. All popular packages are supported in addition to the Atmel-only, TSSOP package -- the smallest package offered for any SPLD device. All versions are EE-based for high-reliability and easy re-programming and are supported by all popular third party programmers.

Atmel CPLDs: Industry Compatible
The ATF15xxBE family of CPLDs is the latest offering from Atmel and is recommended for new designs and applications that require Ultra low power, blazing speed (5ns) and operate at 1.8V. Atmel offers small form fit packages that are ROHS compliant. The ATF15xxBE family is a pin compatible replacement for Xilinx CPLDs.

The ATF15xxAS/ASL/ASV/ASVL CPLD family offers pin-compatible supersets of the popular Altera 7000 and 3000 series devices ranging from 32 to 128 macrocells with propagation delays from 7.5 to 15 ns for 5V standard power versions and 15 ns for 3.3V versions. Atmel's proprietary low-power ("L") versions use Input Transition Detection (ITD) to power down the device automatically when nothing is switching. All devices also support JTAG in-system programming (ISP).

The Logic Doubling™ features of the ATF15xx family make these products ideal for new designs. The ATF15xx family offers the most powerful switch matrix and routing resources of any CPLD while also supporting multiple independent feedbacks, individual output enable, global clear and D/T/latch configurable flip-flops. More global clock pins, a programmable pin-keeper and the ability to realize two latches per macrocell are further examples of the enhanced features available from this CPLD product family.

Converting an Altera EPM7000 series design is easy with Atmel's push button POF2JED software utility that will generate an industry standard JEDEC programming file from an Altera POF file. The POF2JED software is available at no charge, click here.

Proprietary CPLDs
Atmel also offers the ATF750C/CL and ATF2500C CPLDs. The ATF750C has twice the logic of a standard 22V10 in a pin-out compatible 24- or 28-pin package. The ATF750C is ideal for those 22V10 designs that need a bit more logic than is offered in a 22V10 device, but need to maintain the 22V10 pin-out. The ATF2500C introduced in April 2003 is a very high-density (2500 usable gates) 44-pin CPLD, ideally suitable for the most difficult 44-pin designs. The ATF2500C (electrically erasable) replaced the ATV2500B/BQ/BQL/BL in commercial, industrial and military temperature grade offerings.

Atmel Factory Programming
Customers who purchase significant quantities may choose to have their PLDs preprogrammed and/or custom marked at the Atmel factory for a nominal charge. Contact your authorized Atmel Sales Representative for details.