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FPGAs? This is something I assumed was processed long ago with ASICs
by qoez 1y ago
FPGAs? This is something I assumed was processed long ago with ASICs
- 0xfedcafe 1y agowhat do you mean? in image processing or in general? in general they're used a lot where performance is important, especially in high frequency trading, crypto-mining, etc. also they're quite important for image processing in defence/medical imaging.
- fennecbutt 1y agoBut asics are a big $$$ ask.
- meindnoch 1y agoSure. If you buy like a million units.
- wmf 1y agoYes, many SoCs already have an ISP core. Maybe FPGAs are used in low-volume specialized cameras.
- 15155 1y agoEvery digital ASIC design is simulated on FPGAs first.
- FirmwareBurner 1y agoEvery? On which FPGA did Nvidia simulate the 5090?
- Traster 1y agoIf you go to nvidia's jobs website today you'll find they're actively hiring FPGA developers for ASIC prototyping. Obviously they're not dumping their 5090 RTL straight into some 10 metre wide FPGA chip. First, they grab the largest FPGA you can get your hands on - the FPGA vendors tend to have a couple of comically expensive comically large SKUs for specifically this purpose. Then you pop a few of them onto a development board and partition your design across the cluster of FPGAs with some custom interconnect, orchestration and DFT stuff. FPGAs offer quite a compelling way of getting test mileage vs simuluation/emulation in software.
- Kirby64 1y agoEvery. If I was to guess, NVidia probably uses Cadence Palladium/Protium solutions[1]. They're basically industry standard, and essentially everyone uses Cadence design tools for circuit design. [1]: https://www.cadence.com/en_US/home/tools/system-design-and-verification/emulation-and-prototyping.html https://www.cadence.com/en_US/home/tools/system-design-and-v...
- 15155 1y agoYou don't need to simulate the design completely/simultaneously. The FPGA sim implementation might only contain 1 CUDA SM, for instance. For large ASIC designs like this, companies often use numerous (12+) FPGAs connected via transceivers on dedicated simulation boards.