FPGAs play a crucial role in many of today’s most advanced embedded system designs. With the significant drop in FPGA prices and the flexibility they offer, it's no surprise that they are increasingly being adopted in competitive global markets. FPGAs help businesses gain market strength, understand customer needs, build loyalty, enhance brand value, and achieve higher profits. But how can you bring your next great idea to market faster? How can you control costs while still making a profit? And how can you protect your revenue and brand when launching products in bulk?
**Getting to Market First**
While excellence in management, planning, development, and marketing is essential for early market entry, system design often overlooks simplification. Many designers focus on the unit cost of an FPGA solution, believing it leads to the lowest overall cost and fastest time to market. However, this approach often requires complex design work and extensive support infrastructure. In the low-cost FPGA market, the choice of technology significantly impacts the complexity and timeline of embedded system development.
**The Key Difference: Flash vs. SRAM FPGAs**
The fundamental difference in FPGA selection lies in whether it uses non-volatile Flash technology or volatile SRAM-based technology. Flash-based FPGAs offer single-chip operation and power-up capability, greatly simplifying system design and product integration. Unlike SRAM-based FPGAs, they don’t require configuration upon power-up, eliminating the need for external components like CPLDs, clock generators, or reset controllers. Additionally, Flash-based FPGAs can instantly generate clock signals and manage core logic and I/O upon startup, ensuring a predictable and stable system boot process. This allows designers to focus on verification rather than integration challenges.
**Controlling Costs**
Reducing overall project costs, increasing profits, and gaining market share are top priorities for companies. When designing with FPGAs, the unit price should not be the only consideration—hidden costs such as additional components, board space, and power consumption also play a big role. Flash-based FPGAs reduce material costs by minimizing the number of components needed. They also save on board space, improve reliability, and lower power usage, reducing the need for cooling systems and further cutting costs. While not all systems benefit from fewer components, using non-volatile FPGAs in future designs can lead to significant long-term savings.
Beyond component costs, there are intangible but critical expenses related to validating and verifying extra parts. These delays increase engineering costs and reduce productivity. Additionally, during the design phase, considering manufacturing efficiency helps streamline production. Non-volatile FPGAs simplify testing, improve yield, reduce risk, and lower EMI, which can cut down on supplier dependency and inventory costs.
**Protecting Your Investment**
Designing with FPGAs involves more than just cost and performance—it also affects design security, brand reputation, and product liability. The rise of counterfeiting and IP theft has made confidentiality a major concern. Once an FPGA replaces an ASIC, the system loses the protection that ASICs once provided. IP theft is difficult to prevent through patents or litigation, which can be costly and time-consuming. Even if a company wins a lawsuit, it may lose valuable market time.
FPGA bitstreams are exposed every time the device powers up, making them vulnerable to interception and replication. A contract manufacturer or hacker could reverse-engineer a design and sell counterfeit versions, leading to significant losses for the original designer.
**Flash-Based FPGAs Offer Better Security**
Non-volatile Flash-based FPGAs provide a strong defense against these risks. Their configuration bitstream is stored internally, making it impossible to intercept. Even if the device is opened, only the physical structure is visible, not the actual configuration data. Moreover, modern Flash FPGAs include integrated AES decryption cores for secure reprogramming and field updates, offering enhanced protection against unauthorized access.
Ultimately, the choice of FPGA technology has a direct impact on total cost of ownership. Embedded designers must consider not only material and labor costs but also hidden factors like design security and liability. Flash-based FPGAs offer a compelling alternative to traditional SRAM FPGAs and may be the best choice for your next embedded system design.
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