DesignCon: FPGA caveman lag in tools

Mark LaPedus, EETimes
2/1/2011 9:31 PM EST

SANTA CLARA, Calif. - FPGA vendors continue to keep pace with Moore’s Law.

Altera Corp. and Xilinx Inc. have separately announced new and complex 28-nm devices. Intel Corp. will lend its semiconductor process technology muscle to build FPGAs for programmable logic startup Achronix Semiconductor Corp. at 22-nm and beyond under the terms of a recent agreement between the two companies.

But with each new family, the gap between traditional design tools and the underlying silicon capabilities is expanding. Designers are frustrated by inefficient and tedious design tools. Major categories of challenges that designers face include verification, debug and integration with PCBs.

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