Following on from its acquisition of Pigeon Point Systems (Scotts Valley, CA) last year, Actel (Mountain View, CA) has announced IP core enhancements to its Fusion mixed-signal FPGAs that cater to platform management applications, particularly xTCA.

Additional DirectCore IP blocks include CoreLPC v2.0, a pin-reduced version of the PCI bus that can also be used to implement Keyboard Controller Style interface registers as defined in the Intelligent Platform Management Interface specification. CorePWM v4.0 adds fan tachometer frequency measurement capabilities. Combined with existing PWM output capabilities, the tachometer input function enables closed loop fan management, thus facilitating the implementation of xTCA management controllers for fan trays. There's also an updated I2C interface core with support for multi-channel configurations. Actel claims that this should reduce tile consumption in FPGA designs that require many I2C interfaces.

For more information on Fusion-based and other BMR management, visit Actel's website.