Traits of the True Non-Volatile FPGA

Lattice has recently announced the industry's first true 90nm non-volatile FPGA, the LatticeXP2 family. The product announcement along with recent industry activities in non-volatile FPGAs has prompted me to clearly define the basic traits for a real non-volatile FPGA.

The key capabilities that FPGA designers should look for in a non-volatile FPGA device are:

1. "Instant-on" logic.
2. High security with enhanced security capabilities.
3. Small footprint and density migration options.

When you look at these capabilities, they may seem trivial. However, achieving these capabilities in a 90nm non-volatile technology is far from trivial.  Let's take these capabilities one at a time.

Instant-on logic: means the FPGA logic is active within 2ms of the last power supply reaching its minimum voltage.  If you compare this to a traditional SRAM-based FPGA or the recently announced hybrid or die-stack approach "non-volatile" FPGA, configuration times are typically an order of magnitude higher at >100ms.  This significant difference in configuration time allows FPGA designers to use the LatticeXP2 for power up reset and control logic. 

Security: a single-chip flash-based technology naturally gives the FPGA user enhanced security simply by having the configuration data transfer on-chip rather than off-chip from another non-volatile device.  If you choose to transfer from an off-chip device, the LatticeXP2 FPGA lets you encrypt the data transfer.  In addition, the LatticeXP2 device also comes with enhanced security capabilities such as a Flash Protect Key that locks the Flash programming, and an OTP fuse option that altogether disables any unwanted re-configuration of the FPGA.

Small footprint and density migration: because it is a one-chip solution, the LatticeXP2 devices will be offered in variety of packages, including the small foot-print 132csBGA, flexible QFP packages like 144TQFP and 208PQFP and high pin count packages such as 256fpBGA, 484fpBGA and 672fpBGA packages. 

The LatticeXP2 is Lattice's third-generation non-volatile programmable device, with a feature set carried over from many years of field experience in programmability.  You will find many other elegant programmability features such as FlashBAK or user Flash capability, Serial Tag memory, TransFR or Transparent Field Reprogrammability and Dual-boot capabilities.

To find out more about these features, please join our series of webcasts on these exciting topics on LatticeXP2 over the next few weeks.