CURRENT FEATURE ARTICLES

New Kid in Class
SiliconBlue Debuts Low-Power FPGAs (Kevin Morris)
Not Bad Die
Xilinx EasyPath Explained (Kevin Morris)
Avoid FPGA Project Delays by Adopting Advanced Design Methodologies
by Alex Vals, Mentor Graphics
40nm Altera Stratix IV
Bigger and Cooler than we Expected (Kevin Morris)
High-Speed Serial Comes to the Analog/Digital Divide - Lattice and Linear Technology Collaborate on JESD204 (Bryon Moyer)
Golden Hammer
Pursuit of the Programmable Panacea (Kevin Morris)

JOURNAL WEBCASTS

CHALK TALK Creating Secure Mobile Devices With Open Kernel Labs OKL4. In this Chalk Talk, Amelia Dalton delves into the world of software security and microkernels in mobile devices with Gernot Heiser and Rob McCammon of Open Kernel Labs. (Open Kernel Labs)

CHALK TALK Low Power Design With Xilinx and Linear Technology. Join Amelia Dalton as she chats with Mark Moran of Xilinx and Afshin Odabaee of Linear Technology about low power FPGA based designs. (Xilinx)

CHALK TALK Designing Embedded Systems With Linux and low cost FPGAs. Join Amelia Dalton as she chats with industry experts about simplifying embedded systems design with Linux running on low-cost programmable system-on-chip platforms. (Xilinx)

CHALK TALK Lowest Total System Cost With Xilinx
Spartan-3. Amelia Dalton chats with Mark Moran of Xilinx about reducing your overall system cost with Xilinx Spartan-3 family of FPGAs (Xilinx)

CHALK TALK Low Cost FPGA with Serdes Lattice ECP2M. Amelia Dalton talks with Bertrand Leigh of Lattice Semiconductor about low-cost FPGAs with multi-gigabit SerDes interface capability. (Lattice Semiconductor)

[click here for more webcasts]

New Kid in Class
SiliconBlue Debuts Low-Power FPGAs
(Kevin Morris)

There’s a new kid in class.

We’ve all been through this scenario before.  All the players are comfortable in their established roles.  The leader tries to stay ahead and always communicates with the purpose of maintaining the perception of leadership.  The second player vies constantly with the leader for supremacy and mind-share, always trying to one-up the alpha dog.  The third through fifth players are constantly flanking, trying to differentiate and establish themselves based on supremacy in a particular niche.

For years now, Xilinx, Altera, Lattice, Actel, and QuickLogic have tried, taunted, and tested each other in the programmable logic market.  One could almost model it with Bruce Tuckman’s 1965 Forming – Storming - Norming – Performing model for describing the stages of group development.  For the past few years, the FPGA class has been Performing.  Now, a new kid just walks in and sits down.  Everybody has to re-think and re-group.  SiliconBlue is here.

A new FPGA company making it to the “announcement” stage is a rare event indeed.  Sure, we’re always tracking a number of “stealth mode” startups who are developing FPGAs or FPGA-like technology.  Usually, these companies begin, live and end in stealth mode without ever shipping devices in volume.  Starting a new FPGA company is a daunting and complex task.  It requires far more than just an innovative silicon architecture or novel tool idea.  The FPGA business is mature and tough.  Companies have to compete on multiple fronts, including tools, silicon architecture, application engineers, distribution, IP, design kits, reference designs, marketing, and much more.

SiliconBlue is different, however.  For starters, they have a seasoned management team made up of programmable logic industry veterans.  They know where they can add value and differentiate themselves, and they know where to surf the existing ecosystem of tools and technology to get to market without re-inventing too many wheels.  The areas they’ve targeted for differentiation are key in many of the emerging growth markets for FPGAs.  Intrigued?  Let’s take a closer look.

SiliconBlue is announcing a family of low-cost, low-power, non-volatile, 65nm FPGAs dubbed iCE.  The iCE family has four members ranging from 2K to 16K logic cells (a logic cell, in this case, being a 4-input look-up table or LUT) and 128 to 384 user I/O.  For comparison purposes, the closest match would be the 90nm Xilinx Spartan-3E family, which ranges from 2K to about 33K logic cells  and 108 to 376 user I/O (the overall Spartan-3 line ranges from 1.5K to 74K logic cells and 108 to 633 user I/O).  Altera’s 65nm Cyclone III family ranges from 5K to 120K logic cells and 182 to 531 user I/O.  The density comparison makes it clear that SilconBlue’s iCE is focused on the small and inexpensive end of the low-cost FPGA range. [more]