Mark LaPedus Courtesy of EE Times (08/21/2008 6:52 PM EST)

SAN JOSE, Calif. — In the cut-throat programmable logic device (PLD) business, market leaders Altera Corp. and Xilinx Inc. tend to dominate the headlines.

The two FPGA giants tend to drown out their smaller rivals. But now, seeking to elbow its way into the spotlight and re-energize its bottom line, Actel Corp. (Mountain View, Calif.) recently acquired Pigeon Point Systems Inc.--a move that propels the field-programmable gate array (FPGA) house into the telecommunications computing architecture (TCA) components sector.

The world's fourth largest PLD/FPGA vendor also outlined its process roadmap. In fact, seeking to play catch-up in process technology, it is quietly skipping the 90-nm node and devising a new line of 65-nm PLDs and FPGAs.

Actel is also looking to turn up the volume in the noisy public relations wars in FPGAs, a slight departure from its relatively quiet nature. In other words, Actel hopes to avoid becoming a minor niche player destined for obscurity.

''In the area of static power FPGAs, we're killing the competition,'' said John East, president and chief executive of Actel. ''Actel is the leader in low-power FPGAs, but the problem is that nobody knows it.''

Although Actel has some advantages, the company also has some ''smart competitors,'' East told EE Times. "I like them. And they like me. But they want to kick my butt. Instead of kicking my butt, I want to kick their butts.''

Formed in 1985, Actel has taken a somewhat different road than its rivals. Initially, the company made its name by developing and selling FPGAs based on antifuse switching elements.

Later, it bucked the trend and developed products based on flash technology. In contrast, its main rivals sell FPGAs based on SRAM technology.

''Actel is well positioned for revenue growth with its current product offering,'' said Bryan Lewis, an analyst with Gartner Inc. (Stamford, Conn.). ''Actel has been attacking the low-power/low-cost portion of the FPGA market and this is where we are expecting most of the growth over the next three to five years. Actel gained market share in 2007 and we expect them to gain market share in 2008.''

The PLD business includes several different product sectors, such as simple PLDs (SPLD), complex PLDs (CPLDs) and FPGAs. In total, the PLD/FPGA sector is expected to reach $3.8 billion in 2008, up 7.7 percent over 2007, according to Gartner.

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