“FPGA has become an intrinsic part of design methodology”
( 01 Jun 2006 )
by Chitra Giridhar, Bangalore Correspondent
Despite the proliferation of custom ASICs, FPGAs continue to register robust growth. Sandeep Vij, Vice President of Worldwide Marketing, Xilinx Inc., provides insights into new trends influencing the growth of programmable logic device in an interview with EDN Asia. Excerpts.
How many Indian design engineers are working on your technology platforms?
Sandeep Vij: I don’t have a definite number, but thousands of designers are using our software. Many local developers use our technology for hardware development. FPGA has become an intrinsic part of their design methodology because it allows them to customize the cost and hardware involved.
What application areas are you focused on with respect to India?
SV: Xilinx is focused on three application areas in the Indian market: aerospace, communication and infrastructure. Development is also being done in the consumer electronics sector such as handheld devices and digital displays.
SV: Virtex for aerospace and defense, and Spartan for telecom and consumer electronics. Each offers different capabilities for different businesses. Virtex is for high-end applications because it has faster performance, higher density and a better Power PC. Spartan is low-cost and mainly used in the consumer arena.
Typically, FPGA designers have been locked into using vendor-based tools. What do you think will be the impact of GOSPL (generalized open source programmable logic)-based tools?
SV: Those sorts of effort are fruitless in the FPGA industry. The reason is that the architecture and software go hand-in-hand. Most of the architectural decisions in the chip design are made by software. In fact, at Xilinx, we have more software engineers than hardware and chip developers.
One analyst said that “FPGAs are too expensive, too hungry and too inefficient for the rest of the application world. It is a technology that has truly run its course.” What is your comment?
SV: I do not agree. Programmable logic market continues to grow rapidly. Every year, the cost is going down. There is much to work with FPGAs than use complex emulation tools for ASIC designs.
One analyst said that “FPGAs are too expensive, too hungry and too inefficient for the rest of the application world. It is a technology that has truly run its course.” What is your comment?
SV: I do not agree. Programmable logic market continues to grow rapidly. Every year, the cost is going down. There is much to work with FPGAs than use complex emulation tools for ASIC designs.
What are your future plans and market strategy for India?
SV: We have plans to acquire the Xilinx Development Unit currently operated by CMC Ltd and make it our India subsidiary. To improve our market position, we have recently appointed a country manager and increased the number of entities supporting Xilinx in India. CG CoreEl is the representative company that will deal with strategic customers and provide dedicated support. Avnet and NuHorizons will provide logistics. We also plan to conduct annual events to train designers on how to use the devices as well as provide them with development platforms. In addition, we have set up an FPGA lab at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in Mumbai.
