What! How big did you say that FPGA is? (Team-design for FPGAs)

Jeff Garrison, Synopsys
EETimes (9/27/2010 1:22 PM EDT)

Field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) have become incredibly capable with respect to handling large amounts of logic, memory, digital-signal-processor (DSP), fast I/O, and a plethora of other intellectual property (IP).

At 28-nm, FPGAs deliver the equivalent of a 20- to 30-million gate application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC). At this size, FPGA design tools, which have traditionally been used by just one or two engineers on a project, begin to break down. It is no longer practical for a single engineer, or even a very small design team, to design and verify these devices in a reasonable amount of time.

Of course, project schedules are always too long from a manager’s perspective and always too short from a design and verification engineer’s perspective. As a result, larger design teams, often geographically dispersed, are becoming much more common in the FPGA world. This trend has a significant impact on the tools used to design, verify and manage these increasingly complex electronic devices. This article describes a few of the key issues that should be considered when tackling complex FPGA design among several different engineers or teams of engineers.

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