FPGA is used for small volume and for fast time-to-market.
All Major FPGA Vendors are provided.
FPGA Vendors: Achronix, Altera, Lattice Semiconductor, MicroSemi (Actel), Xilinx, etc.
FPGA
ASIC
ASIC has better performance and dramatically reduce chip price.
Mass-production ===> Mass-Customization for Small Volume.
ASIC Mass-production cost a lot.
However, it (also called NRE: Non recurring expense) can be reduced by SHARING.
What can be SHARED?
- Wafer / Foundry (MPW: Multi-project wafer)
- ASIC Tools / IPs
- and some more...
NRE $ down, then ASIC can replace the FPGA Market.
Cost Efficient ASIC Foundry Models
MPW (Multi project Wafer): TSMC, Samsung, Magnachips, Dongbu, etc.
SMIC (China)
Baysand Model: MPW sharing, 50K$
Your own chip with 50K !
(Target model: 5$ chip for small volume IoT (=50K$/1000 units)
ASIC & FPGA Implementation Example: MODEM
FPGA can be a product quickly and can be also used to verify functionality and performance analysis.
ASIC - SoC (System On Chip): Simply Awesome!
