Its often that I hear designers talk about analog technologies disappearing from the board and digital and embedded replacing them. They have to be reminded of the analog sockets around the gorilla chips which still account for tens of billions of market across the globe. But, it is a truth that semicon boundaries have blurred to the extent that even traditionally analog business units are borrowing controller technlogy and we are never sure if the device in consideration belongs to the digital or the analog domain.
I think technology is effectively replacing the role of humans here. With the tools getting more and more sophisticated, engineers are not required to have much technical skills in terms of programming. They need to be more skilled with the use of software tools that program the chips. Similarly, the cross-platform factor is also being taken care of by the software tools. All of this is making the tasks for users much easier.
"For example, the emphasis might shift from standard cell design skills to programming skills."
Morry,
Thanks for interesting article. I agree with your point that " the FPGA and the processor, or other device types, can now be integrated onto one IC". But why do you think this will have an impact on the standard cell design because we can never integrate ASIC libraries in single ICs.
However, i'm still wondering, does it really payoff to have engineers go cross-platform in design consideration.
I think they are great, ideas, however, the need for separate platforms will still remain in areas where the advanced functionality of the combined platforms will not be necessary.
I identify with FLYINGSCOT's view on documentations, there can be a real problem.
I'm a newbie to FPGAs and ASIC. can VHDL be used to program them all? especially those they say have MPUs on board as well.
Most of the programmable IC companies offer free tools and IP to help designers use their products. Having used several of these tools I wish there was better documentation, canned examples and product support to enable the user to gain familiarity much more quickly. The common way to develop solutions is to use VHDL or Verilog or a mixture of the two. Most freebie tools support both languages but only some offer mixed VHDL/Verilog support.
Morry, you are right. 5 years back in my company there are separate wings for ASIC and FPGA. When new software and tools are coming, there is no need for any specialized peoples. Both the same can be done by a single person, that means the border line is reducing. Inter operability is possible and now a day’s many engineers are doing multi tasking.
This is very interesting, and like all technological innovations, it opens doors to greater possiblities for designers.
Like you observed, it helps with the issue of cost and design considerations extensively if more than one programmable device can be found on a single chip.
I haven't had the opportunity of using any of such chips but will the entire IC be programmed using a single language?
You have observed that an MCU, MPU, FPGA, ASIC are programmed differently, using different concepts and rules. If an MPU and ASIC are designed on a single IC, how will it be programmed?
I'm sure these guys have it all worked out, but i would like to know, as a designer.
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