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Microsemi Announces RTG4 Radiation-tolerant FPGAs For High-speed Signal Processing Applications
[April 07, 2015]

Microsemi Announces RTG4 Radiation-tolerant FPGAs For High-speed Signal Processing Applications


ALISO VIEJO, Calif., April 7, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Microsemi Corporation (Nasdaq: MSCC), a leading provider of semiconductor solutions differentiated by power, security, reliability and performance, today announced availability of its RTG4™ high-speed signal processing radiation-tolerant FPGA family. The RTG4's reprogrammable flash technology offers complete immunity to radiation-induced configuration upsets in the harshest radiation environments, requiring no configuration scrubbing, unlike SRAM FPGA technology. RTG4 supports space applications requiring up to 150,000 logic elements and up to 300 MHz of system performance.

Microsemi's new RTG4(TM) high-speed signal processing radiation-tolerant FPGA family features reprogrammable flash technology offering complete immunity to radiation-induced configuration upsets in the harshest radiation environments, requiring no configuration scrubbing, unlike SRAM FPGA technology. RTG4 supports space applications requiring up to 150,000 logic elements and up to 300 MHz of system performance.

Typical uses for RTG4 include remote sensing space payloads, such as radar, imaging and spectrometry in civilian, scientific and commercial applications. These applications span across weather forecasting and climate research, land use, astronomy and astrophysics, planetary exploration, and earth sciences. Other applications include mobile satellite services (MSS) communication satellites, as well as high altitude aviation, medical electronics and civilian nuclear power plant control. Such applications have historically used expensive radiation-hardened ASICs, which force development programs to incur substantial cost and schedule risk. RTG4 allows programs to access the ease-of-use and flexibility of FPGAs without sacrificing reliability or performance.

"We expect that the next 10 years will see an increase of about 25 percent in the number of new spacecraft of 50Kg mass or larger," said Marco Caceres, senior analyst and director of space studies for the Virginia-based Teal Group consulting firm. "These new spacecraft will have more sophisticated payload electronics than their predecessors, doing more on-board data processing to maximize data acquisition while dealing with limited downlink bandwidth."

The flexibility, reliability and performance of RTG4 FPGAs make it much easier to achieve this. RTG4 is Microsemi's latest development in a long history of radiation-tolerant FPGAs that are found in many NASA and international space programs.

"Space Micro is pleased to be working with Microsemi's RTG4 FPGAs on our next-generation software-defined radio and also image processing computer, which we are designing for several NASA and international scientific space missions," said David Strobel, CEO of Space Micro Inc, of San Diego, California. "We believe the high performance and rich feature set of the RTG4 FPGAs, together with our proprietary advanced processing algorithms, ill make for a winning combination, creating great value for our space and missile customers."



"The introduction of RTG4 FPGAs affirms our strong commitment to the space industry as the leading supplier of FPGAs for applications requiring mitigation of radiation effects," said Ken O'Neill, director of marketing, space and aviation at Microsemi. "RTG4 FPGAs combine a wealth of features with the highest quality and reliability to meet the increasing demands of modern satellite payloads."

Key product features include:


  • Up to 150,000 logic elements; each includes a four-input combinatorial look-up table (LUT4) and a flip-flop with built-in single event upset (SEU) and single event transient (SET) mitigation
  • High system performance, up to 300 MHz
  • 24 serial transceivers, with operation from 1 Gb/sec to 3.125 Gb/sec
  • 16 SEU- and SET-protected SpaceWire clock and data recovery circuits
  • 462 SEU- and SET-protected multiply-accumulate mathblocks
  • More than 5 Mbits of on-board SEU-protected SRAM
  • Single event latch-up (SEL) and configuration memory upset immunity
  • Total ionizing dose (TID) beyond 100 Krad

Availability
Engineering silicon, Libero SoC development software and RTG4 development kits are available now. RTG4 FPGAs and development kits have already shipped to some of the 120+ customers engaged in the RTG4 lead customer program. Flight units qualified to MIL-STD-883 Class B are expected to be available in early 2016.

Microsemi will present more information on RTG4 FPGAs in a live webinar on May 6 and will also be hosting Microsemi Space Forum events in the U.S., India and Europe starting in June, presenting information on RTG4 FPGAs and the extensive range of Microsemi space products.

To learn more about the new RTG4 technology and upcoming events visit http://www.microsemi.com/products/fpga-soc/radtolerant-fpgas/rtg4 or contact Microsemi's sales team at [email protected].   

Microsemi Leading Space Innovation for More than Half a Century
With one of the industry's most comprehensive portfolios of space products, Microsemi provides radiation-tolerant FPGAs, rad-hard mixed-signal ICs, rad-hard DC-to-DC converters, precision time and frequency solutions, linear and POL hybrids, custom hybrid solutions, and rad-hard discretes including the broadest portfolio of JANS Class diodes and bipolar products. Microsemi is committed to supporting its products throughout the lifetime of its customer programs and recently announced the new LX7730 radiation-tolerant telemetry controller IC providing key functions for sensor monitoring, attitude and payload control.

About Microsemi
Microsemi Corporation (Nasdaq: MSCC) offers a comprehensive portfolio of semiconductor and system solutions for communications, defense & security, aerospace and industrial markets. Products include high-performance and radiation-hardened analog mixed-signal integrated circuits, FPGAs, SoCs and ASICs; power management products; timing and synchronization devices and precise time solutions, setting the world's standard for time; voice processing devices; RF solutions; discrete components; security technologies and scalable anti-tamper products; Power-over-Ethernet ICs and midspans; as well as custom design capabilities and services. Microsemi is headquartered in Aliso Viejo, Calif., and has approximately 3,400 employees globally. Learn more at www.microsemi.com

Microsemi and the Microsemi logo are registered trademarks or service marks of Microsemi Corporation and/or its affiliates. Third-party trademarks and service marks mentioned herein are the property of their respective owners.

"Safe Harbor" Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: Any statements set forth in this news release that are not entirely historical and factual in nature, including without limitation, statements related to the RTG4, a high-speed signal processing radiation-tolerant FPGA, and its potential effects on future business, are forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are based on our current expectations and are inherently subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements. The potential risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, such factors as rapidly changing technology and product obsolescence, potential cost increases, variations in customer order preferences, weakness or competitive pricing environment of the marketplace, uncertain demand for and acceptance of the company's products, adverse circumstances in any of our end markets, results of in-process or planned development or marketing and promotional campaigns, difficulties foreseeing future demand, potential non-realization of expected orders or non-realization of backlog, product returns, product liability, and other potential unexpected business and economic conditions or adverse changes in current or expected industry conditions, difficulties and costs of protecting patents and other proprietary rights, inventory obsolescence and difficulties regarding customer qualification of products. In addition to these factors and any other factors mentioned elsewhere in this news release, the reader should refer as well to the factors, uncertainties or risks identified in the company's most recent Form 10-K and all subsequent Form 10-Q reports filed by Microsemi with the SEC. Additional risk factors may be identified from time to time in Microsemi's future filings. The forward-looking statements included in this release speak only as of the date hereof, and Microsemi does not undertake any obligation to update these forward-looking statements to reflect subsequent events or circumstances.

Microsemi Corporation.

 

 

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SOURCE Microsemi Corporation


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