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1 – IGLOO Device Family Overview
General Description
The IGLOO family of flash FPGAs, based on a 130-nm flash process, offers the lowest power FPGA, a
single-chip solution, small footprint packages, reprogrammability, and an abundance of advanced
features.
The Flash*Freeze technology used in IGLOO devices enables entering and exiting an ultra-low power
mode that consumes as little as 5 W while retaining SRAM and register data. Flash*Freeze technology
simplifies power management through I/O and clock management with rapid recovery to operation mode.
The Low Power Active capability (static idle) allows for ultra-low power consumption (from 12 W) while
the IGLOO device is completely functional in the system. This allows the IGLOO device to control system
power management based on external inputs (e.g., scanning for keyboard stimulus) while consuming
minimal power.
Nonvolatile flash technology gives IGLOO devices the advantage of being a secure, low power, single-
chip solution that is Instant On. IGLOO is reprogrammable and offers time-to-market benefits at an ASIC-
level unit cost.
These features enable designers to create high-density systems using existing ASIC or FPGA design
flows and tools.
IGLOO devices offer 1 kbit of on-chip, reprogrammable, nonvolatile FlashROM storage as well as clock
conditioning circuitry based on an integrated phase-locked loop (PLL). The AGL015 and AGL030
devices have no PLL or RAM support. IGLOO devices have up to 1 million system gates, supported with
up to 144 kbits of true dual-port SRAM and up to 300 user I/Os.
M1 IGLOO devices support the high-performance, 32-bit Cortex-M1 processor developed by ARM for
implementation in FPGAs. Cortex-M1 is a soft processor that is fully implemented in the FPGA fabric. It
has a three-stage pipeline that offers a good balance between low power consumption and speed when
implemented in an M1 IGLOO device. The processor runs the ARMv6-M instruction set, has a
configurable nested interrupt controller, and can be implemented with or without the debug block. Cortex-
M1 is available for free from Microsemi for use in M1 IGLOO FPGAs.
The ARM-enabled devices have ordering numbers that begin with M1AGL and do not support AES
decryption.
Flash*Freeze Technology
The IGLOO device offers unique Flash*Freeze technology, allowing the device to enter and exit ultra-low
power Flash*Freeze mode. IGLOO devices do not need additional components to turn off I/Os or clocks
while retaining the design information, SRAM content, and registers. Flash*Freeze technology is
combined with in-system programmability, which enables users to quickly and easily upgrade and update
their designs in the final stages of manufacturing or in the field. The ability of IGLOO V2 devices to
support a wide range of core voltage (1.2 V to 1.5 V) allows further reduction in power consumption, thus
achieving the lowest total system power.
When the IGLOO device enters Flash*Freeze mode, the device automatically shuts off the clocks and
inputs to the FPGA core; when the device exits Flash*Freeze mode, all activity resumes and data is
retained.
The availability of low power modes, combined with reprogrammability, a single-chip and single-voltage
solution, and availability of small-footprint, high pin-count packages, make IGLOO devices the best fit for
portable electronics.