Motorola field programmable analogue arrays, present hardware and future trends

The Motorola MPAA020 Field Programmable Analogue Array (FPAA) is an integrated array of undedicated programmable analogue cells, based upon switched capacitor technology. Programming data is held in SRAM in each cell, and it is possible to configure and re-configure the implemented circuit without limit. The chip is capable of supporting a diverse range of analogue signal processing functions, such as data conversion, linear signal processing, filtering and non-linear functions. The MPAA020 chip is mounted within a development board which provides support functions such as clock generation, voltage regulation and I/O pins. This board connects to the serial port of a PC to provide easy download of configurations from the design support software, Easy Analog^TM. This software fully abstracts the design process away from component level to system level. At system level, design entry is performed by inter-connection of user-parameterised macro-cells and then downloaded directly to the device. Very rapid prototyping of switched capacitor circuits is possible with the MPAA020 array, reducing time to market by months when compared with a full custom ASIC implementation. A full configuration of the chip may be accomplished in 5 μS and a partial update of the function may be done in 200 nS per 8 bit data word