With the advancement of technology, FPGA products have greatly improved in logic density, performance, and functionality. At the same time, the cost of devices has been drastically reduced. This has led electronic design engineers to gradually adopt more and more design solutions. Programmable logic device. After experiencing bottlenecks in low power consumption, low cost, and advanced processes, FPGAs continue to infiltrate into more areas with their programmable and flexibility, and the addition of many manufacturers has made the FPGA market more and more intense, and the Chinese mainland market has become the paramount battle. place.
Due to its programmable characteristics, programmable logic devices (PLDs) can provide circuit simulation and verification functions in the IC design process, and significantly reduce design time and speed to market. Therefore, they have always been involved in pre-production prototyping. (Prototyping) important role.
PLD can be divided into Simple Programmable Logic Device (SPLD) and Complex Programmable Logic Device (CPLD) and Field Programmable Gate Array (Field Programmable Gate Array) according to its logic gate density and architecture. Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs), in which the market value of CPLDs and FPGAs is relatively large, the competition among vendors is also attracting attention. Judging from the current development of various manufacturers, Xilinx and Altera have separated their leading position in the market. The two products are mainly based on SRAM. They compete with each other very fiercely, but each has a winning streak. As for the architecture based on Flash, In the product market, the development of Actel is relatively mature, and the military market that focuses on security has achieved fruitful results; Lattice (Lattice) products have slightly different architectures. The architecture of SRAM+Flash is adopted. Although it enters the FPGA market later, it is through mergers and acquisitions. In this way, many FPGA-related technologies have been mastered.
FPGA swallows ASIC market
PLD is known for its flexibility. Current multi-platform FPGA products are even more shocking to ASIC/ASSP vendors. According to market research agency Gartner Dataquest, the PLD market will grow from 2.3 billion U.S. dollars in 2002 to 6.3 billion U.S. dollars in 2008. In this growth process, the most concerned about the industry is the market crowding effect of PLD and ASIC. According to data released by the WSTS, the ASIC market will drop from 84% market share in 1996 to 69% in 2007. At the same time, the PLD market will increase from 16% to 31%, although the market share is still much lower than ASIC. , but its application area is constantly expanding, and the growth trend can not be underestimated.
In addition, significant changes have taken place in the ASIC market. Traditional ASIC suppliers gradually changed their past general ASIC strategies and instead focused on developing products that meet specific applications. System designers, IP property developers, and foundry manufacturers are also beginning to focus on designers' needs. As the cost of ASIC masks continues to increase, designers have to reevaluate the costly, non-reusable engineering costs of custom fixed logic devices. Many product engineers have discovered that ASIC can only balance previous investments when production or sales reach a certain scale. It is based on such considerations, more and more designers are beginning to use FPGAs, making FPGAs continue to swallow the ASIC market. Lu Shaoqiang, manager of Xilinx China/Hong Kong, pointed out that the ASIC NRE mask cost increased by 100% per process node (Figure 1), and the resizing of the chip was almost inevitable, making the ASIC manufacturer face a double-edged sword.
A series of actions from various vendors can also see the threat effect of FPGA products on the ASIC/ASSP market. For guns into the ASIC market, Xilinx offers diversified end-market solutions and focuses on the six major markets of communications, consumer electronics, automotive, storage/server, industrial and aerospace/defense. Simultaneously, Xilinx also took FPGAs from the field of programmable logic. Expanded to the technical field, such as high-performance DSP, high-performance embedded processing and high-speed serial connection. At the same time, Xilinx has also integrated the product line from four major chip technologies into a single programmable device, such as the Virtex-4 multi-platform FPGA family. For the above strategies, Lu Shaoqiang stated that Xilinx is a leader in the Chinese communications market, especially the wireless base station market, and has also been seeking opportunities for high growth in the consumer electronics and automotive markets, such as flat panel displays, set-top boxes, PDAs, MP3 players, and digital Cameras, multimedia systems and GPS navigation devices. Xilinx not only provides DSP, embedded processing, and serial connectivity engineers with training on the advantages of FPGAs over ASICs, but also teaches design engineers how to easily design system-level designs on programmable chips.
Actel Fusion Convergence Programmable System Chips (PSCs), which have just been released by Actel Corporation, are targeting the ASIC market. Actel's director of product marketing, Martin Mason, said that Actel Fusion devices integrate mixed-signal analog circuitry, Flash memory, and an FPGA fabric into a single-chip programmable system chip, allowing designers to quickly move from concept to complete design and to the market. Introduced a feature-rich system. Its applications mainly include power management, smart battery charging, clock generation and management, and electromechanical control. FPGAs will bring programmable logic advantages to these applications. These applications have previously been expensive and space-consuming discrete simulations. Components or mixed-signal ASIC solutions to dominate.
The decline in the price of process maturity prompted FPGA to open up territory
Unlike the past, FPGA vendors use current advanced semiconductor manufacturing technology to make it possible to obtain more chips per Wafer, provide more logic capacity, and the performance of the chip can be greatly improved. .
Altera Asia Pacific Marketing Director Liang optimistic that the introduction of each process technology usually must go through a period of development, and then after the market's gradual acceptance and digestion of products into a mature period. From the point of view of FPGA technology development, 2005 was an important turning point from 0.13μm to 90nm, which also means that the 0.13μm product technology has matured; while the 90nm product technology is out of development and begins to grow; 65nm products will be launched one after another in 2006-2007, and will be a design cycle from 2006 to 2008, and it will be mature in the next three to five years.
"Of course, the introduction of each new process technology does not mean that the previous generation of technology will disappear." Liang optimistic that both will coexist and continue to grow, not after the 90nm launch 0.13μm will fade out. 90nm will still mature within a year or two, but compared to 2004, Altera's 90nm shipment ratio has increased significantly.
Xilinx was the first manufacturer to adopt 150nm, 130nm, and 90nm process technologies in 2001, 2002, and 2003, and is expected to become the first PLD provider to adopt 65nm technology in 2006. For the Xilinx 90nm product shipments, Lu Shaoqiang is more than satisfied with the words, he said that Xilinx currently provides a total of four 90nm FPGA series - Virtex-4, Spartan-3E, Spartan-3L and Spartan-3. As of August 2005, Xilinx has shipped more than 5 million 90-nm devices, and 90 nm FPGA devices account for more than 70% of the world's market share.
The continuous progress of the process will inevitably lead to the continuous decline of the price. The price of the FPGA product will naturally decline due to the technology migration and the architecture adopting the pipeline design. At present, the FPGA of 100,000 system gates is lower than 2 US dollars and the FPGA of 1.2 million system gates is even lower. At $9, Figure 2 shows the prices of FPGA products from 2000 to 2005.
In addition to continuous advancement of process technology and continuous reduction in product prices, the application fields of products have also undergone considerable changes. Zheng Xinnan, marketing director of Xilinx Asia-Pacific market, pointed out that before 2000, the network boom encouraged the application of FPGA in the communications market, and became the most important application market and revenue source of FPGA. However, after the network bubble in 2000, the application market of FPGAs has been gradually reorganized. Although the application of communications has continued, the growth rate has eased, and the growth rate in the consumer electronics market and the automotive market has been relatively strong, especially The consumer electronics sector will increase from just 6% in 2002 to 18% in 2008 (Figure 3).
Strong consumer electronics market
According to Liang Chengzhi, general manager of Lattice China, consumer electronics has grown rapidly in recent years, and growth has even surpassed traditional communications products. Lattice introduced the EC/ECP, MachXO, and XP series of low-cost, cost-effective PLD products, which are powerful complements to traditional CPLDs and FPGAs. In 2006, Lattice will further introduce 90nm low-cost devices and high-end products to meet market demand.
Altera Liang optimistic pointed out that from the product life cycle point of view, the traditional field of life is relatively long, it will often last 3 to 5 years, and the change in demand is relatively moderate. However, the life cycle of emerging digital consumer fields is often replaced by newer products in only one year, but the change in demand is sudden, rapid and rapid decline, and in this case, FPGA is very necessary. , because it happens to have the high flexibility and rapid development of the market for emerging digital consumer products.
"Consumer electronics applications is one of the fastest growing PLD market," Gartner Dataquest reference data Lushao Jiang pointed out that by 2008 the entire PLD consumer can take advantage of the market will reach $ 1.185 billion. Xilinx has been developing consumer electronics applications since 1998, and produced the first Spartan FPGA product that year, and the CoolRunner CPLD was launched in 1999. He also emphasized that Xilinx is currently focusing on the consumer electronics market, and its revenue ratio exceeds 25% of the company's total revenue. Accumulated Spartan production revenue exceeds $1.3 billion.
From the list of consumer electronics solutions such as the programmable ExpressCard solutions, digital TV solutions, and mobile phone development platforms announced by Xilinx, Xilinx's emphasis on the consumer electronics market is even greater. Xilinx vertical marketing director David Gamba pointed out that the digital display is the main target application of Spartan-3E devices, Xilinx has Spartan-3E display solution platform and rich IP product support; and smart phones are the world of CoolRunner-II devices , Mobile platforms integrate a Xilinx CoolRunner-II CPLD family of daughter cards to demonstrate a proven method that enables the introduction of advanced handset features faster than existing design methods by integrating new features and providing co-processing capabilities , while meeting the demanding power consumption, size and cost requirements of the consumer market.
Security and confidentiality of FPGA technology is very suitable for consumer electronics applications, Martin Mason believed to Flash technology-based FPGA low power consumption, ideal for portable products. The development of more and more consumer electronics and communications products in the portable direction has made power consumption a focus of portable products using FPGAs.
After the automotive electronics industry, potential
In addition to the consumer electronics market, another area of ​​interest for FPGA manufacturers is the use of the electronic market for carts, including Actel, Altera, Lattice and Xilinx.
Zheng Xinnan pointed out that FPGA can be mainly used for global positioning system (GPS), in-car entertainment and Telematics (telematics) systems. Xilinx's XA series programmable logic devices have passed AEC-Q100 verification program, ISO-TS16949 certification and PPAP (Production Part Approval Process) and other related certifications. In addition to the European market, they have also obtained high-end BMW products in the US market. Vehicle type used. As for the automotive market in the Asia-Pacific region, South Korea and Australia are the preferred locations, and mainland China is also a promising market in the future.
Liang optimistic said that FPGA is currently the most used in automotive electronics for the interior of the display, due to the application of this area is not a certain standard, from 6 inches, 8 inches, 12 inches are possible, plus the need to deal with The data format is also quite diverse. There is no specific graphics chip or image control chip that can meet its application, so it is quite suitable for FPGA. He added that Altera has been operating in the automotive market for a long time. The related products can meet the automotive temperature specifications. The past few years have mainly focused on displays, Infotainment (synthesis of Information and Entertainment) and navigation applications. In order to grasp the trends in the automotive electronics market, Altera also established the AIM (Automotive Industry and Military) division in the six major business units, paying special attention to the development of the automotive electronics market.
Actel, which has always been the product of FPGA security claims, emphasizes that the company's product features are ideally suited for the automotive market. Peng Bingchang, Actel's senior business manager for Taiwan and South East Asia, said that the automotive market has high requirements for product reliability and safety, and Actel's own product characteristics originally meet the requirements of automotive electronics, so the time the product is used in the automotive market Very early, the ratio was quite high. The main products were mainly the Antifuse series. The areas of application included Telematics, Engine Control Units (ECUs), dashboards, and displays. He believes that the growth of the automotive market is relatively stable, but the rate of increase will be higher and higher, and it will continue to grow at an annual rate of about 10 to 20%.
Actel company also said Martin Mason, Actel Flash-based FPGA design has been aimed at safety-critical automotive electronics applications (such as engine management control), various safety systems (such as smart airbags management) as well as a variety of dashboard, Anti-theft and infotainment systems. Adding analog circuits and Flash memory to the Fusion fabric's FPGA fabric makes Fusion devices ideal for automotive applications.
In addition to reliability and safety requirements, automotive electronic products have a short life cycle, and have strict requirements on time-to-market and functions. Features are similar to those of the consumer market. All FPGA vendors invariably extend their reach here. But Li Yingcheng, a senior application engineer at Lattice Taiwan Branch, believes that automotive electronics have a certain threshold, and related technologies are also mature. Therefore, it is not easy to cut in. Instead, the opportunities for automotive entertainment systems are greater, and FPGAs can be used to accelerate the market. Role, through the FPGA can help the industry easily achieve it.
Manufacturers actively deploy the domestic market
According to iSuppli's forecast, China's computer equipment market will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 11.4% from 2004 to 2009, and the market size in 2006 will reach US$113.2 billion, an increase of approximately 15% from 2005. This market is mainly supported by laptops, monitors and desktops. The demand for computers is pushing. Thanks to the promotion of consumer electronics, television and digital cameras, the compound annual growth rate of China's consumer electronics market from 2004 to 2009 will be 9.8%, which will increase from 58.6 billion US dollars in 2005 to 64.9 billion US dollars in 2006. The growth rate is 11%. At the same time, the domestic wireless communication equipment and wired communication equipment market will also reach annual compound growth rates of 5.9% and 4% respectively. The Chinese market will undoubtedly become the focus of global attention. It can be seen from the layout of the domestic market by FPGA manufacturers. .
Xilinx challenges key development
With the increasingly fierce market competition, design engineers need to focus more on the key R&D challenges such as higher performance, lower cost, faster time-to-market, and more product differentiation than ever before. Lu Shaoqiang believes that FPGA is a standard product. There is no recurring design cost (NRE), so it can provide design engineers with faster, cheaper ways to introduce new products to beat competitors and adapt to shorter and shorter market trends. At the same time, the reprogrammability features of FPGAs are of great benefit to China's final market, which is still in the standard-setting stage and highly competitive state.
Xilinx currently has nearly 50% of the market share in mainland China. The main cooperation strategy adopted is to cooperate with the major local telecommunications and consumer electronics manufacturers in China. Among them, 3 of the top 5 customers in the Asia Pacific region are Chinese companies. Lu Shaoqiang stated that Xilinx has an authorized Training Partner Network (ATP) in cooperation with its Chinese partner, Shenzhen Yiyi Technology Co., Ltd., to provide local R&D engineers with the latest PLD design method training, and for many Popular applications in China provide reference designs and system architecture diagrams, including applications such as digital TV displays, set-top boxes, wireless base stations, and mobile handsets. And each training center offers 19 international standard design courses.
Lattice Publicity Fires Up
Lattice is the first PLD manufacturer to establish an R&D center in China. At present, Lattice has established a R&D center with more than 200 people in Shanghai, and established technical support and sales offices in Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Hong Kong to win continuous growth with high-quality services. Market share. Liang Chengzhi said that Lattice’s China development strategy is to achieve common development with China’s PLD business and achieve a win-win situation, and the proportion of technology investment is also very large. In addition, Lattice will also carry out comprehensive system promotion activities in China, such as university campus plans to invest, carry out design competitions, and hold network training.
Liang Chengzhi believes that FPGAs must take another step away from the traditional competition of increasing scale to give users flexible, low-cost, cost-effective choices. He pointed out that low-cost is the mainstream trend, and the high cost-effectiveness is based on the continuous innovation of technology, while flexibility must seize customer's application characteristics and provide real-time solutions. This is also Lattice's continuous improvement of low-cost PLD. Framework, from CPLD, MachXO to XP, and from EC/ECP to the next generation of low-cost devices.
Altera's main battle in the communications market
Altera Liang optimistic said that the mainland is a new market, and the expansion is very fast, such as communications, and Altera's share in the communications sector is also very high, the company will adopt a defensive strategy to maintain the existing territory. In the field of consumer electronics products, such as DTV and IPTV, these products are very large in the domestic market (the Domestic Market); besides, Medical Electronic and Industrial Market are quite diversified. At present, Altera is taking a comparison. Conservative attitude and careful management.
Actel Expands Team and Strengthens Cooperation
Martin Mason optimistically stated that in the future Actel will continue to increase its investment in the Chinese market, including expanding its sales and technical support engineers team and strengthening its partnership in design, manufacturing and technical support. He pointed out that the advantages of Flash technology are particularly attractive to the consumer electronics and industrial markets, and Chinese suppliers have already occupied high market penetration in these areas, so this will be a good opportunity for Actel.
The increasingly diverse role of FPGA
With the advancement of semiconductor process technology and the deep entanglements of various manufacturers, the role of FPGA has become increasingly diversified. When a new generation of low-cost, high-functionality products is launched in succession, in addition to the gradual erosion of low-cost and low-volume ASIC application markets, the rapid growth of consumer electronics products and the potential growth of automotive electronics will also reduce the traditional use of telecommunications. The demand for high-end products in the market and the huge market potential in China have become the main battlefield for PLD vendors. However, using FPGAs for development may be a completely new experience for most users. Therefore, how to reduce barriers to entry and establish good customer experience may be a prerequisite for the expansion of FPGAs.
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