Actel has launched its ProASIC3 and ProASIC3E families, the company's third generation of flash-based programmable logic solutions and what it claims are the world's lowest-cost FPGAs. With the ProASIC3/E families, Actel believes it is addressing strong market demand for full-featured, cost-effective FPGAs for consumer, automotive and other price-sensitive application areas. This value-based segment represents the fastest growing component of the FPGA market, which is estimated to be $500M this year, says the company.

"Over the past 10 years, flash technology has evolved into a disruptive technology, dramatically impacting every application it has touched," explained John East, president and CEO of Actel. "For example, flash technology has transformed cell phones, cameras and video recorders into revolutionary variants of their predecessors. Flash is now poised to do the same for the programmable logic market. Indeed, the paradigm for mainstream FPGA technology platforms has changed forever, and Actel is in a position of leadership."

These devices deliver 64bit, 66MHz PCI performance and on-chip user flash memory. They range in density from 30,000 to 3-million system gates and deliver technology-leading integrated secure in-system programmability (ISP).