Actel Introduces IGLOO-Based Portable Control Solutions

Actel Corporation has announced two plug-in daughter cards developed to manage human machine interface (HMI) and miniature motor control functionality. The HMI Daughter Card and the Motor Control Daughter Card are offered as plug-ins to Actel’s IGLOO Icicle Kit. Combined with the company’s previously announced IGLOO-based storage and display-related development boards, design examples and intellectual property (IP) cores, the company believes these control-related solutions will increase market penetration for Actel’s 5 microwatt (µW) IGLOO FPGAs in the rapidly growing portable market.



As keypads, light-emitting diodes (LEDs) for backlight and display, and motors have grown commonplace, portable designers have typically relied on microcontrollers, application-specific standard products (ASSPs) or complex programmable logic devices (CPLDs) to handle HMI and miniature motor control functions. However, microcontrollers and ASSPs do not provide adequate flexibility and CPLDs do not offer the levels of integration or sophistication of FPGAs. Co-developed with partners Ishnatek and Avnet Memec, the HMI and miniature motor control solutions provide a platform-based design approach, enabling designers to address changing requirements, implement custom algorithms, and make design changes through device reprogramming. The HMI Daughter Card demonstrates keypad control, brightness control for white LEDs, color mixing for red, green blue (RGB) LEDs and tone generation, which is beneficial for applications like smart phones, portable gaming consoles and remote control devices.