Huayu selects Altera zero-power CPLDs

BANGALORE, INDIA: Altera Corp. announced that Shenzhen Huayu Communications Technology Co. Ltd selected has MAX IIZ CPLDs for use in its new P1200 portable handsets.

Chosen for their ability to quickly and securely implement new features and capabilities while consuming minimal power and board space, Altera’s MAX IIZ CPLDs manage several peripherals in the P1200 handsets, including an RFID reader, an IRDA sensor, a Bluetooth interface, and LED control.

The P1200 handsets made their debut during the Hangzhou public transportation system’s bicycle project in May 2008, and in August, they will be used for ID identification, logistics, and public transportation services for the Beijing Summer Games.

“With the 2008 Olympics rapidly approaching, we were challenged with getting our handsets to market quickly with unique features that are not supported by off-the-shelf components,” said Wang Shao Wei, vice president of engineering at Shenzhen Huayu Communications Technology Co. Ltd. “Participating in the MAX IIZ early access program enabled us to leverage Altera’s first zero-power CPLDs as soon as they were released, and to meet our aggressive schedule with a cost-effective solution that minimizes our power consumption and increases design security.”

Leading-edge handset developers such as Huayu face the challenge of quickly adding new product features demanded by their customers. The lengthy development cycles of full-custom ASICs and the lack of flexibility of ASSPs have limited developers’ ability to meet this challenge. In addition, features based on off-the-shelf components like ASSPs are easily duplicated by other manufacturers, severely reducing the benefits that handset developers enjoy when they deliver first-to-market capabilities. The MAX IIZ family addresses these concerns by delivering the lowest power consumption of any CPLD in the market, the highest amount of user-customizable logic resources per board area and design security.

“As the world’s leading provider of CPLDs, Altera has a long history of reliably delivering custom logic products that enable product innovation,” said Luanne Schirrmeister, director of marketing, low-cost products, Altera. “Huayu’s P1200 is a great example of how forward-looking innovators in the portable handset industry are using MAX IIZ CPLDs to deliver differentiating features as soon as the market demands them.”

MAX IIZ devices are available in densities of 240 and 570 logic elements (LEs), with ultra-small MBGA packages as small as 5x5 mm, and as many as 160 I/Os. Their look-up table (LUT)-based architecture offers increased logic density and I/O count, thus allowing greater integration of functions and substantially reducing board space and power consumption while lowering overall system costs.

The advanced features and capabilities of MAX IIZ CPLDs—such as user flash memory, an internal oscillator, cost optimization, high logic density, smaller packages and low power consumption—far surpass those of all traditional macrocell-based CPLDs.