Can programmable processors really be smaller than hardwired logic?

By videantis GmbH

May 2, 2019

We run into this question quite often in customer meetings. We license our v-MP6000UDX processor and run applications like CNNs, computer vision algorithms and video codecs on it. Frequently, such algorithms are implemented in hard-wired logic, instead of running in software on a processor, like we do. Intuitively, you’d think such a hard-wired approach results in much smaller and lower power implementations, however, we’ve seen many designs and we’ve found that often the reverse is true: using our processor results in smaller and lower power solutions than using hard-wired designs. In this article we will highlight some reasons of why that can be the case.

Silicon reuse

The first reason a processor-based design can result in a smaller solution is that a processor reuses silicon a lot more. In hard-wired designs, each function in an application becomes its own individual circuit. When using a processor, each function just becomes some code that resides in a memory. This code can then be executed on the processor, giving the processor virtually unlimited functionality. The more code there is to run in silicon, the more efficient a processor-based approach becomes compared to implementing it in hard-wired logic. Try implementing all of Android in hardware for instance. It’s simply impossible.

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