Comparison of FPGA-based solutions with alternatives

FPGA (field programmable gate array) is an array of programmable logic cells with programmable interconnects, which can be configured to implement virtually any digital circuit.

FPGA design is currently a very popular cost-effective solution for production volumes from low to medium.

FPGAs have been extensively used in digital electronics design since the late 80's. Compared with other solutions, FPGA offers:

• Low design costs and low risk. Compared with custom ASIC design, FPGA design flow is relatively simple. In addition, the cost of design error is rather low, which makes verification process simpler and cheaper.
• Flexibility. FPGA configuration bitstreams can be modified or completely redesigned at any stage of system design workflow. This can give a few nice opportunities:
  • Crucial decisions can be postponed until the late stages of the project without delaying the design of the other parts of the system.
  • It is possible to provide customers with new functionality without the need to recall the product.
• Ability to implement highly parallel processing. Compared with microcontrollers (MCUs) and digital signal processors (DSPs) FPGAs can execute hundreds or thousands of operation simultaneously, making full use of pipelining and paralleling.

The latest trends indicate that it will be used even more widely in the near future. Modern FPGAs provide even more advantages:

• High level of SoC (system-on-chip) integration. Many of the modern FPGA devices feature built-in processor cores, communication modules, clock management units and even termination resistors. Utilization of these features can help to reduce the number of components on the board and to simplify overall system design.
• High density. The top FPGAs can have densities of as much as 200000 six-input logic functions in one chip. It is possible to build a complex SoC solving a bunch of tasks based on one FPGA chip. This can lead to the further reduction of the number of system components, facilitating the communications between parts of the system.
• High performance. Modern FPGAs can operate on frequencies of as high as 550 MHz, which is only few times less than typical custom ASIC top frequency.

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