New Architectures Debut for FPGAs

FPGA technology is evolving quickly, closing the pricing gap between ASICs and application specific standard products. Xilinx Inc. (www.xilinx.com) is unveiling an architecture with a modular framework that lets users pick only the types of technology they need so they can get to market faster and with reduced costs.

The Application Specific Modular Block (ASMBL) architecture, an extension of the firm's Virtex platform, has a modular framework arranged in templates for different types of products. Alignment along rows helps segment the technologies for specific functions, which can be arranged for classes of applications that have similar requirements.

That means that engineers can pick solutions that are closely tied to their requirements. If you need a device that's mostly logic, or mostly memory, you no longer have to buy a device with lots of another technology that you don't need," says Per Holmberg, director of Virtex solution marketing at Xilinx.

The savings could be significant. "Designers can see a cost improvement as great as 10 times," Holmberg adds. That could help increase volumes by reducing the number of engineers who use FPGAs during design but shift to ASICs or ASSPs to reduce costs. "As they get cheaper, we're more inclined to use FPGAs in production instead of only during initial design," says Prasad Parupalli, engineering manager at Caterpillar Inc.'s Electronic Products Division in Mossville, IL (www.cat.com). He notes that Cat began using FPGAs in 1998 and now uses them at least in the early stages of about 80 percent of their control modules.

Cell Block: Aligning cells in rows is a key aspect in the new Xilinx line, which lets users pick the technologies they need, improving efficiency, and reducing die size.

Market analysts feel the Xilinx concept could play out well in the marketplace. "It's a major evolutionary step up, saying 'We have a bunch of platforms that can serve as a template,' " says Jerry Krasner, vice president of Embedded Market Forecasters of Framingham, MA (www.embeddedforecast.com).

FPGAs are expanding into many markets, including consumer electronics and communication products. One indicator of growth potential is the embedded FPGA market, which is expected to grow substantially in the next few years, from $2.9 million in 2001 to $603 million in 2006, according to In-Stat/MDR.

The ASMBL line also extends size up to 1 billion transistors. To further increase functionality, the devices will be packaged using flip chip pads on the die, with ball grid array technology typically used to attach to the circuit board. "Flip chip brings a lot of benefits. We can put I/O in the middle of a die," Xilinx' Holmberg says. With wire bonding, all I/O pads must be located around the periphery of the die, limiting the number of available leads.

Flip Flexibility: using flip chip technology inside the package lets Xilinx put I/O, power, and ground lines anywhere on the die, adding more flexibility than wire bonding affords.

Holmberg notes that the additional transistor count and I/O capabilities, along with the versatility, may allow engineers to achieve required performance levels with larger FPGAs and lower-cost microprocessors.