Development And Manufacturing Deal Yields Multiple FPGA Families

In a combination technology development and manufacturing deal, Fujitsu Ltd. will provide manufacturing capacity on its 130- and 90-nm process lines for Lattice Semiconductor's next-generation families of SRAM and embedded-flash-based FPGAs.

The companies are developing the embedded flash memory technology that will be used on the FPGAs. Lattice and Fujitsu also are discussing the use of Fujitsu's forthcoming 65-nm process technology in future Lattice products. As part of the deal, Lattice will invest in a 300-mm fabrication facility that Fujitsu plans to put into operation in the spring of next year. The first results of the partnership will be three new FPGA product families that Lattice plans to introduce throughout the remainder of 2004.

The family with the highest density will be the SRAM-based SCTM series. Based on Fujitsu's 90-nm process, it will provide complexities of over 10 million system gates and 10 Mbits of embedded static RAM. The FPGAs will include optimized, embedded system functions. Also in the works is the XPTM family of nonvolatile, infinitely reconfigurable FPGAs that incorporate embedded flash for "instant on" operation. These devices will be produced on Fujitsu's 130-nm wafer line. And, Lattice's ECTM family provides a range of ultra-low-cost SRAM-based FPGAs that will be manufactured on Fujitsu's production-proven, low-k, copper metallization 130-nm process. The ECTM series will be the first family to be sampled.