Configuration Memory Chips Offer Industry’s Smallest Footprints

June 10, 2002

Available in densities of 4 or 8 Mbits, two FPGA-configuration flash memory chips come in the industry's smallest packages, an 8-contact, 6-mm on-a-side leadless array. The AT17F040 and AT17F080 provide in-system reprogrammable storage for FPGA configuration files and offer two to four times the storage capacity of the company's previous configuration memory. The memories employ the standard two-wire serial programming scheme to transfer data to the FPGA and for the host to program the memory with new configuration data. Data can be read from the configuration memory at 30 MHz, allowing the complex FPGAs to keep configuration time to a minimum. The 4-Mbit AT17F040 and 8-Mbit AT17F080 cost $18 and $25 respectively, both in 10,000-unit quantities. Samples are immediately available.

Atmel Corp.
www.atmel.com; (408) 441-0311

About the Author

Dave Bursky

Technologist

Dave Bursky, the founder of New Ideas in Communications, a publication website featuring the blog column Chipnastics – the Art and Science of Chip Design. He is also president of PRN Engineering, a technical writing and market consulting company. Prior to these organizations, he spent about a dozen years as a contributing editor to Chip Design magazine. Concurrent with Chip Design, he was also the technical editorial manager at Maxim Integrated Products, and prior to Maxim, Dave spent over 35 years working as an engineer for the U.S. Army Electronics Command and an editor with Electronic Design Magazine.