Lattice fpgas bring context awareness to mobile devices
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Looking to enable context awareness in devices such as smartphones, Lattice has extended its iCE40 fpga family with the addition of what it says are the most flexible single chip sensor solutions yet launched.
Ted Marena, director of solutions marketing, said developers have been trying to solve the context awareness problem for a while. "They are looking to provide what, where, when style information, but the problem is the device needs to be always on to monitor sensors continually." Marena also pointed to power consumption issues. "If you can overcome these, there are lots of new products that can be implemented."
Two parts have been announced: the ice40LM and the 40LP. The LM variant is intended for use as a sensor management device, with hard IP for strobe generators, i2c and spi interfaces. Lattice says the part reduces power consumption by a factor of 100, compared with application processor based approaches. The LP variant is described as an IR subsystem, offering IR remote, bar code emulation and led driver features.
LM parts, which will be available with 1000, 2000 and 4000 look up tables, are said to consume less than 1mW in active mode. The parts will come in a 1.71 x 1.71mm package. The LP range will be supplied in a 16ball wafer level chip scale package measuring 1.4 x 1.48mm, with a choice of 640 and 1000 LUTs.
