Microsemi's SmartFusion2 SoC FPGA: breakthrough capabilities in security, reliability, and low power

Microsemi has unveiled its new SmartFusion2 SoC FPGA family. Microsemi's next-generation SmartFusion2 SoC FPGAs address fundamental requirements for advanced security, high reliability, and low power in critical industrial, defense, aviation, communications, and medical applications. SmartFusion2 integrates inherently reliable flash-based FPGA fabric, a 166 MHz ARM Cortex-M3 processor, advanced security processing accelerators, DSP blocks, SRAM, eNVM, and industry-required high-performance communication interfaces all on a single chip. "Several years ago we implemented a strategy to drive growth in high-value markets by strengthening our product portfolio, increasing our focus on R&D, and the strategic addition of key products and technologies for high-value, high-barrier-to-entry markets," said James J. Peterson, president and CEO of Microsemi. "Our new SmartFusion2 SoC FPGAs are designed for challenging safety-critical applications in industrial, defense, aviation, communications, and medical applications where it is imperative for devices to operate reliably and flawlessly," said Esam Elashmawi, vice president and general manager at Microsemi. "Our SmartFusion2 devices have the differentiated features required to ensure secure and reliable operation with extremely low-power consumption. These next-generation devices also feature higher densities and industry standard interfaces that allow us to address a much wider range of mainstream applications." Microsemi has already engaged with lead customers who plan to use SmartFusion2 in a broad range of applications including flight data recorders, weapons systems, defibrillators, handheld radios, communications-management systems, and industrial motor control. Design and Data Security Recent attacks on industrial, defense, aviation, communications, and medical systems have highlighted the need for security and anti-tamper safeguards within electronic systems. SmartFusion2 includes breakthrough security capabilities that make it easy to protect classified and highly-valuable designs against tampering, cloning, overbuilding, reverse engineering, and counterfeiting with state-of-the-art design protection based on non-volatile flash technology. SmartFusion2 provides the most advanced design and data security capabilities starting with a robust root-of-trust device with secure key storage capability using the SoC FPGA industry's only PUF (physically unclonable function) key enrollment and regeneration capability. SmartFusion2 is also protected from DPA (differential power analysis) attacks using technology from the CRI (Cryptographic Research Incorporated) portfolio. Users may also leverage built-in cryptographic processing accelerators including AES (advanced encryption standard) AES-256, SHA (secure hash algorithm) SHA-256, 384-bit ECC (elliptical curve cryptographic) engine, and an NRBG (non-deterministic random bit generator). High-reliability Microsemi's programmable logic ICs are used extensively in defense and aviation applications due to their high reliability and immunity to SEU (single event upset) occurrences, which can cause binary bits to change state, corrupt data, and cause hardware malfunction. The need for SEU protection is also extending into industrial and medical applications. Smartfusion2 devices meet many industry standards including IEC 61508, DO254, and DO178B, and feature SEU immunity of zero FIT (failures in time). As an additional benefit, SmartFusion2 flash FPGA fabric does not require external configuration, which provides an added level of security since the SoC FPGA retains its configuration when powered off and enables device instant-on performance. SmartFusion2 protects all its SoC embedded SRAM memories from SEU errors. This is accomplished through the use of SECDED (single-error correction, double-error detection) protection on embedded memories such as the Cortex-M3 embedded scratch-pad memory; Ethernet, CAN, and USB buffers; and is optional on the DDR memory controllers. These product attributes, as well as the flash-based device architecture, make SmartFusion2 particularly well suited for demanding applications such as aviation that require protection from damaging SEU occurrences. Low Power Microsemi's flash-based SoC FPGA dissipates only 10 mW of static power for a 50K LUT (look-up table) device, including the processor and without sacrificing performance. SmartFusion2 SoC FPGAs dissipate 1/100 of the standby power for equivalent SRAM-based FPGAs without sacrificing performance. The FlashFreeze standby power mode dissipates only 1 mW for a 50K LUT device and can be initiated with a simple command. In this mode, all registers and SRAM retain state, I/O state can be set, the MSS (microprocessor sub-system) can be operational while low-frequency clock and I/Os associated with MSS peripherals can be operational. The device can enter and exit FlashFreeze mode in approximately 100 ?s-an asset for low-duty-cycle applications where short bursts of activity are required, such as defense radio where size, weight, and power are critical. Technical Information SmartFusion2 devices are available with a range of density from 5K LUT to 120K LUT plus embedded memory and multiple accumulate blocks for DSP. High-bandwidth interfaces include PCIe (PCI Express) with flexible 5G SERDES along with high-speed DDR2/DDR3 memory controllers. The device also includes an MSS with a 166 MHz ARM Cortex-M3 processor, on chip 64 kB eSRAM and 512 kB eNVM to minimize total system cost. The MSS is enhanced with an ETM (embedded trace macrocell), 8 kB instruction cache, and peripherals including CAN (controller area network), Gigabit Ethernet, and high speed USB 2.0. Optional security accelerators are available for data security applications. Designing with SmartFusion2 System designers can leverage the newly released, easy-to-use Libero SoC software toolset for designing SmartFusion2 devices. Libero SoC integrates industry leading synthesis, debug, and DSP support from Synopsys, and simulation from Mentor Graphics with power analysis, timing analysis, and push button design flow. Firmware development is fully integrated into Libero SoC with compile and debug available from GNU, IAR, and Keil, and all device drivers and peripheral initialization is auto generated based on System Builder selections. The ARM Cortex-M3 processor includes operating system support for embedded Linux from EmCraft Systems, FreeRTOS, SAFERTOS, and uc/OS-III from Micrium. Availability Customers can start designing with SmartFusion2 M2S050T engineering sample now with first production silicon slated for early 2013. Microsemi SmartFusion2 product deeplink