Mouser Electronics is now stocking the new Icicle Kit from Actel, the leading supplier of low-power FPGAs and programmable system chips. Leveraging Actel's 5-microwatt (5µW) IGLOO FPGA, the kit showcases the unprecedented low-power advantages, flexible implementation options, and significant battery savings offered by IGLOO FPGAs for portable applications.

 “Development tools are critical for our design engineering customers to evaluate the latest new products from Actel,” said Mike Scott, Mouser’s Vice President of Active Products. “Offering immediate shipment of Actel’s new Icicle Kits allows engineers to quickly evaluate and incorporate Actel’s low-power IGLOO FPGAs into their newest designs.”

The kit allows designers to easily and rapidly program, evaluate, and modify their low-power IGLOO-based portable designs. Powered by a rechargeable lithium-ion battery, the 1.4” x 3.6” Icicle evaluation board consumes less than one-seventh of the power of competitive FPGA development solutions in a design the size of a small cell phone.

The Icicle board is an environmentally-friendly, RoHS-compliant solution that integrates a nonvolatile, flash-based 125,000-gate AGL125 IGLOO FPGA. The board includes the built-in, rechargeable lithium-ion battery, USB-to-UART interfaces, and power management circuits.

In addition to the Icicle evaluation board, the kit includes a sophisticated programming stick for extended programming functionality and a free, unlimited-use license for the Actel Libero Integrated Design Environment (IDE) Gold edition. The software enables designers using the Icicle Kit to take advantage of the advanced power analysis tools available in Actel’s Libero IDE to identify key sources of power in their designs. Other kit elements include user’s guide and tutorial, printed circuit board (PCB) schematics, layout and sample design.