In my next three posts I’ll wrap up my series on Investment Opportunities in the Next Generation of Semiconductor Design. In these three posts I’ll cover why semiconductor solutions are converging and why this is a great opportunity for FPGAs.
Convergence of Software Design Platforms
Programming many-core microprocessors and FPGAs is also a problem of educational deficits and development platform shortcomings. The developer’s choice here may ultimately be decided by who builds the simpler development platform or raises the level of abstraction through powerful framework IP.
Where the innovation is made will make all the difference. Will embedded systems use Platform FPGAs, dedicated microprocessors, or DSPs? With globalization and the Internet; China, India, Russia, and Eastern Europe are producing hundreds of thousands to millions of engineers. Altera has over 30 joint laboratory and training centers in China, but it is not alone as Xilinx and other major semiconductor firms are working to get the next generation of engineers to learn and innovate on their platform. What development platform will win the minds of the next innovators?
Competition is migrating from semiconductor companies solely competing based on their IC based on the platform they offer. Microchip is a successful example of this strategy. When the innovation in the IC slows the innovation moves to the platform; and the efficiency it bequeaths on the end product designer.
The information technology departments and particularly web software developers have discovered and embraced agile project development methodology. Rapidly shrinking product lifecycles are encouraging digital product designers to embrace similar prototype and release agile strategies.
Platform FPGAs as SoC
As chips become more complex their design and manufacturing costs increase dramatically. More requirements require a complex design which produces more functionality to test and debug, and a more complex design triggers lower yields and higher NRE in the manufacturing stage. Embedded systems are being designed around SoC. Industrial, automotive, and consumer electronics devices are increasingly becoming digitized.
Another example of an FPGA SoC is HDTVs. Most HDTV are now designed with a stand-alone FPGA or coupling an FPGA with an ASSP as a coprocessor. These Platform FPGAs include hard-coded DSP blocks, internal memories, and standard IP blocks along with the programmable logic.
High-end convergence consumer devices are a great opportunity for FPGAs. In addition, the growth in internet traffic is will create another round of build-out in the FPGA industry’s sweet spot, telecom and networking.
In 2008 products built around an FPGA will be delivered. What will be new is that for the first time some of these products will be built on an industry-standard soft-core processor architecture from ARM which ARM released in 2007 specifically for FPGAs. Now the huge base of ARM engineers can develop software for embedded systems based on a FPGA system-on-a-chip and use the massive installed base of ARM software and tools. Will adding an ARM processor and its accompanying ecosystem to the FPGA platform be the inflection point for FPGA design wins and the growth that inevitably follows?