FPGAs Get Boost For Broadband Apps

The company has introduced a field-programmable gate array (FPGA) technology that claims to more than triple the operating speed and gate density over previous generation devices. This boost in performance and density is said to make the company's new ORCA FPGAs capable of handling the most demanding wireless, broadband access, asynchronous transfer mode, and synchronous optical network/synchronous digital hierarchy cores from its intellectual property library. The new technology, called ORCA Series 4, is based on the company's COM2 modular SOC fabrication technology. Initial offerings include generic FPGA devices, and embedded programmable blocks in SOCs, and in field-programmable system chips. Pricing starts at $300 each/10,000.