6 ms·

Nice article, but it's from 2013.

monocasa 8y ago
And to be fair, since then FPGAs have exploded in non ASIC prototyping use cases. They're even starting to be used for some consumer electronics.
- simias 8y ago
  FPGAs have been used in the industry for decades, basically every time you need high throughput and/or very low latencies and you don't have the volume to justify making an ASIC then FPGAs and CPLDs are the way to go. The article is not really talking about that though, it's more about having FPGAs in mainstream desktop computers. This is still far from a reality, even if Intel seems to be pushing for it.
  - dboreham 8y ago
    This has been something FPGA fans have been pushing since I left college with my BsEE 30 years ago.
  - monocasa 8y ago
    I mean, I know, I've professionally written HDL for FPGAs. My point is that back then (a decade or so ago and farther back) it was relegated to low volume, high margin products, explicitly as a replacement for an ASIC. This was due to the cost of the FPGAs. The point of this article is that by embracing the reprogrammable nature, they'll make their way into places that in fact have the volumes required for an ASIC (which might not be nearly as big as you might think), but choose an FPGA anyway in order to reconfigure out in the field. We are starting to see this and I'm seeing fairly cheap consumer electronics positions (ie. products in the range of a hundred or so dollars) asking for HDL experience more and more in my area. Desktops aren't the only mass platform out there.
    - esmi 8y ago
      Keep in mind ASIC fabrication and tool prices are way down compared to 10 years ago so "cheaper than an ASIC" is a moving target too.
  - snaky 8y ago
    Maybe the only one market segment where FPGAs aren't in wide use yet is desktop computers. iPhone 7 has iCE5LP4K inside, AWS provide FPGA-based instances, and Microsoft have even FPGA-powered NICs. https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/01/08/azure_fpga_nics/ https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/01/08/azure_fpga_nics/
    - hobo_mark 8y ago
      Most desktop and server motherboards embed small CPLDs and FPGAs for low-level stuff, like power sequencing.
- LeifCarrotson 8y ago
  I'm interested in seeing some examples of their use in consumer electronics. I think this article would be a lot more compelling if it had a section on "You've already bought one if you have a (hypothetically) Roomba vaccum/ Tesla Model S/ Thinkpad laptop/ Ubiquiti router." I'm pretty sure most of those don't have FPGAs, but would be curious to see a list of things which do. I am by no means a representative consumer, but I know there's an FPGA in my: - Rigol oscilloscope - National Instruments DAQ equipment - Mecco laser cutter - DJI drone Any others where I might not have taken it apart and seen the big QFP with "Xilinx" or "Altera" on the circuit board would be interesting!
  - monocasa 8y ago
    The iPhone 7 has a iCE5LP4K. Those little CPLDs (which are full FPGAs these days, but fighting that terminology seems to be a losing battle) are in everything. Which is fair, they're fantastic power sequencing controllers and great for coalescing I2C and SPI buses into something more easily consumed by the application processor. Think an FPGA that constantly polls sensors, wrapping their chip specific format in a way that let's them filter on the CPLD and only wake up the application processor when something interesting happens.
  - snaky 8y ago
    Digital audio, DACs in particular. From high-end dCS and Chord down to cheap (but fairly widely known and highly regarded) Singxer USB-I2S converters.
  - Rebelgecko 8y ago
    I think they're more common than you think The Model S has at least one FPGA, as do some of Ubiquiti's products. I don't know about the Thinkpad, but Apple has used cheap Lattice FPGAs for interfacing between different hardware components. Macbook Pros have used them in the past (IIRC for driving the display and interfacing with the battery), as have iPhones.
  - mastercheif 8y ago
    FPGAs are starting to see extensive use in the high end audio market for implementing custom filtering, DSP, and discrete DAC mapping algorithms. Here's an interview with Rob Watts, a DAC designer who's getting the best measurements in the industry right now with his Chord DAC's (specifically Chord DAVE) http://www.the-ear.net/how-to/rob-watts-chord-mojo-tech http://www.the-ear.net/how-to/rob-watts-chord-mojo-tech
make3 8y ago
and I still haven't bought an fpga :p lies (jk)

And to be fair, since then FPGAs have exploded in non ASIC prototyping use cases. They're even starting to be used for some consumer electronics.

simias 8y ago
FPGAs have been used in the industry for decades, basically every time you need high throughput and/or very low latencies and you don't have the volume to justify making an ASIC then FPGAs and CPLDs are the way to go. The article is not really talking about that though, it's more about having FPGAs in mainstream desktop computers. This is still far from a reality, even if Intel seems to be pushing for it.
- dboreham 8y ago
  This has been something FPGA fans have been pushing since I left college with my BsEE 30 years ago.
- monocasa 8y ago
  I mean, I know, I've professionally written HDL for FPGAs. My point is that back then (a decade or so ago and farther back) it was relegated to low volume, high margin products, explicitly as a replacement for an ASIC. This was due to the cost of the FPGAs. The point of this article is that by embracing the reprogrammable nature, they'll make their way into places that in fact have the volumes required for an ASIC (which might not be nearly as big as you might think), but choose an FPGA anyway in order to reconfigure out in the field. We are starting to see this and I'm seeing fairly cheap consumer electronics positions (ie. products in the range of a hundred or so dollars) asking for HDL experience more and more in my area. Desktops aren't the only mass platform out there.
  - esmi 8y ago
    Keep in mind ASIC fabrication and tool prices are way down compared to 10 years ago so "cheaper than an ASIC" is a moving target too.
- snaky 8y ago
  Maybe the only one market segment where FPGAs aren't in wide use yet is desktop computers. iPhone 7 has iCE5LP4K inside, AWS provide FPGA-based instances, and Microsoft have even FPGA-powered NICs. https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/01/08/azure_fpga_nics/ https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/01/08/azure_fpga_nics/
  - hobo_mark 8y ago
    Most desktop and server motherboards embed small CPLDs and FPGAs for low-level stuff, like power sequencing.
LeifCarrotson 8y ago
I'm interested in seeing some examples of their use in consumer electronics. I think this article would be a lot more compelling if it had a section on "You've already bought one if you have a (hypothetically) Roomba vaccum/ Tesla Model S/ Thinkpad laptop/ Ubiquiti router." I'm pretty sure most of those don't have FPGAs, but would be curious to see a list of things which do. I am by no means a representative consumer, but I know there's an FPGA in my: - Rigol oscilloscope - National Instruments DAQ equipment - Mecco laser cutter - DJI drone Any others where I might not have taken it apart and seen the big QFP with "Xilinx" or "Altera" on the circuit board would be interesting!
- monocasa 8y ago
  The iPhone 7 has a iCE5LP4K. Those little CPLDs (which are full FPGAs these days, but fighting that terminology seems to be a losing battle) are in everything. Which is fair, they're fantastic power sequencing controllers and great for coalescing I2C and SPI buses into something more easily consumed by the application processor. Think an FPGA that constantly polls sensors, wrapping their chip specific format in a way that let's them filter on the CPLD and only wake up the application processor when something interesting happens.
- snaky 8y ago
  Digital audio, DACs in particular. From high-end dCS and Chord down to cheap (but fairly widely known and highly regarded) Singxer USB-I2S converters.
- Rebelgecko 8y ago
  I think they're more common than you think The Model S has at least one FPGA, as do some of Ubiquiti's products. I don't know about the Thinkpad, but Apple has used cheap Lattice FPGAs for interfacing between different hardware components. Macbook Pros have used them in the past (IIRC for driving the display and interfacing with the battery), as have iPhones.
- mastercheif 8y ago
  FPGAs are starting to see extensive use in the high end audio market for implementing custom filtering, DSP, and discrete DAC mapping algorithms. Here's an interview with Rob Watts, a DAC designer who's getting the best measurements in the industry right now with his Chord DAC's (specifically Chord DAVE) http://www.the-ear.net/how-to/rob-watts-chord-mojo-tech http://www.the-ear.net/how-to/rob-watts-chord-mojo-tech

make3 8y ago

and I still haven't bought an fpga :p lies (jk)