Guest comment: FPGAs evolution through 15 years

Fifteen years ago, FPGAs offered flexibility and fast time-to-market, but were considered big, slow, hot, and expensive. These early FPGAs found homes in large-form, powerful applications such as communications infrastructure equipment, their primary target. At that time, the Internet was just becoming a reality, wireless communications was in its infancy, and over 70 percent of the purchasing power was in the hands of corporations and government. As a result, the primary innovators in communications were in North America and Europe, where the edict was “time to market at any cost.”

COST IS DRIVING FACTOR
Now, the Internet and wireless communications have evolved to become a lifestyle. Purchasing power has shifted to consumers, with a demand for applications—including mobile phones, PCs, PDAs, and even autos—that is more than half the world’s consumption of semiconductors.
In this fast-paced environment, cost is the driving factor, and is as important to manufacturers as time to market.

As these markets developed, companies needed a much more cost- and time-effective solution than that offered by ASICs, the traditional choice. FPGAs evolved to meet the demands for fast, low-power, low-cost solutions that allow manufacturers to bring a product to market quickly and ramp to high production immediately if required. Today’s FPGAs have advanced far beyond the original designs of 15 years ago, and include densities ranging from 20K to 250K logic elements (LEs) at costs as low as $2, with unique power saving capabilities to meet even portable design needs. FPGAs also offer the flexibility to quickly upgrade products with new features and specifications without a redesign, even after the product has been delivered to customers, extending market life.

The emergence of Asia as both a buyer and producer of consumer goods fits well with FPGA industry advances. The migration of manufacturing from the US to Asia brought FPGA business to
the area. Design houses were established all over the region to support multinational companies. Their designs leverage FPGAs in the heart of their systems to get their products to market faster than their competition. As a result, Asia today contributes 25 percent to Altera’s overall revenues, compared to 7 percent 15
years ago.

A FORMIDABLE FORCE
What does all this mean? Asia is now a formidable force—a perfect combination of innovation and manufacturing power that feeds both their strong, local market and the global economy. In this environment, FPGAs have emerged as the perfect design platform and a secret weapon for system architects who want to hit their unique business and technical targets with cost-effective solutions.