Why Embedded FPGA is a New IP Category?

By SemiWiki

July 17, 2017

Yes, embedded FPGA is clearly an IP function, or design IP, and not a software tool or anything else. The idea to embed an FPGA block into an ASIC is not new, I remember the discussions we had in the ASIC marketing team when I was working for Atmel, back in 2000. What is new is the big interest for eFPGA in the semiconductor industry, even if a company like Menta is now 10 years old and propose today the 4^th version of their eFPGA product.

We can see two main approaches for the eFPGA offering: The first comes from an FPGA vendor, who decide to “cut” an FPGA block in a standard FPGA product and deliver this as a FPGA IP. The other approach is to design from scratch a family of eFPGA IP, all based on the same architecture but of various size. In the first case, the FPGA block will be based on cells designed specifically to build the FPGA parent product, or full custom cells. Full custom cells have been designed using the design rules of a specific technology node developed by a specific foundry. If your design targets this precise node and this precise foundry, no problem. Now, when the eFPGA block has been designed to be an IP, it also can be based on full custom cells targeting a specific node/foundry, but not necessarily.

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