Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) technology continues to show growth momentum, and it is expected that by 2013, the global FPGA market will grow to $3.5 billion. When Xilinx first created an FPGA in 1984, it was a simple glue logic chip, and today it has replaced custom application specific integrated circuits (ASICs) and processors in signal processing and control applications. Where is the success of this technology? This article will focus on FPGAs and focus on the unique advantages of FPGAs.
1. What is an FPGA?At the highest level, FPGAs are reprogrammable silicon chips. Using pre-built logic blocks and reprogrammable routing resources, users can configure these chips to implement custom hardware functions without the need for a circuit board or soldering iron. Users develop digital computing tasks in software and compile them into configuration files or bitstreams that contain information that components are connected to each other. In addition, the FPGA is fully reconfigurable, and when users recompile different circuit configurations, they can immediately present new features. In the past, only engineers familiar with digital hardware design knew how to use FPGA technology. However, the rise of high-level design tools is changing the way FPGAs are programmed, with emerging technologies capable of converting graphical block diagrams and even C code into digital hardware circuits.
The adoption of FPGA chips in all walks of life is due to the biggest advantage of FPGAs incorporating ASICs and processor-based systems. FPGAs provide the speed and stability of hardware timing without the large-scale investment of huge up-front costs like custom ASIC designs. The flexibility of a reprogrammable silicon chip is comparable to that of a software running on a processor-based system, but it is not limited by the number of available processor cores. Unlike processors, FPGAs are truly parallel implementations, so different processing operations do not need to compete for the same resources. Each individual processing task is equipped with a dedicated chip section that can operate autonomously without being affected by other logic blocks. Therefore, when adding more processing tasks, other application performance will not be affected.
2. Five advantages of FPGA technologyperformance
Time to market
cost
stability
Long-term maintenance
Performance - Taking advantage of hardware parallelism, FPGAs break the sequential execution mode, completing more processing tasks per clock cycle, surpassing the computing power of digital signal processors (DSPs). The well-known analysis and benchmarking company BDTI, released benchmarks, shows that in some applications, FPGA processing power per dollar is many times that of DSP solutions. 2 Controlling input and output (I/O) at the hardware level provides faster response times and specialized features to meet application requirements.
Time to market – Despite the increasing number of restrictions on the market, FPGA technology offers the flexibility and rapid prototyping capabilities. Users can test an idea or concept and complete verification in hardware without having to go through a long manufacturing process with a custom ASIC design. 3 This allows users to complete step-by-step modifications and FPGA design iterations in a matter of hours, saving weeks. Commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) hardware provides different types of I/O to connect to user-programmable FPGA chips. The increasing popularity of high-level software tools has reduced the learning curve and abstraction layer, and often provides useful IP cores (preset functions) for advanced control and signal processing.
Cost—The cost of non-recurring engineering (NRE) for custom ASIC designs far exceeds the cost of FPGA-based hardware solutions. The huge investment in the early days of ASIC design shows that OEMs need to ship thousands of chips each year, but more end users need custom hardware capabilities to enable the development of tens to hundreds of systems. The nature of the programmable chip means that the user can save on manufacturing costs and long lead times for assembly. The requirements of the system change from time to time, but the cost of changing the FPGA design is negligible compared to the huge cost of ASCI.
Stability—Software tools provide a programming environment, and FPGA circuits are truly programmed “hard†executions. Processor-based systems often contain multiple layers of abstraction that can schedule tasks and share resources across multiple processes. The driver layer controls hardware resources while the operating system manages memory and processor bandwidth. For any given processor core, only one instruction can be executed at a time, and processor-based systems are at the risk of strictly time-limited tasks being mutually exclusive. FPGAs do not use an operating system, have true parallel execution and deterministic hardware that focuses on each task, reducing the potential for problems with stability.
Long-term maintenance—As mentioned above, the FPGA chip is field-upgradeable, eliminating the time and expense involved in redesigning the ASIC. For example, digital communication protocols contain specifications that can change over time, while ASIC-based interfaces can cause difficulties in maintenance and forward compatibility. The reconfigurable FPGA chip is adaptable to future modifications. As products or systems mature, users don't have to spend time redesigning hardware or modifying board layouts to enhance functionality.
3. SummaryHigher-level tools are constantly being improved, bringing reprogrammable silicon chips to engineers and scientists at all levels of expertise, and the adoption of FPGA technology is becoming more widespread.
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