Field-Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) are advanced semiconductor devices, a device which is similar to silicon chips. FPGA contains programmable logic blocks and interconnection circuits. These circuits are also referred to as reconfigurable integrated circuits, can be programmed or reprogrammed numerous times to meet specific functionality requirements. This capability allows a circuit board with a pre-installed and pre-programmed FPGA to be updated or reprogrammed even after its production and sale. Due to this applicability, the high-performance FPGA solutions are a better alternative as compared with Application-Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs), which are custom-made for specific tasks and cannot be modified post-manufacture.
Advantages of Using high-performance FPGA solutions
FPGAs offer several benefits over other programmable logic devices, particularly in prototypes or limited production designs, due to their flexibility, reusability, and ease of acquisition.
Reduces time-to-market of products
The ability to reprogram by high-performance FPGA solutions is top-notch and it significantly shortens the time-to-market for new products. FPGAs have a high use case in prototyping and testing hardware before it is fabricated as ASICs. The parallel processing capability of high-performance FPGA solutions allows multiple development steps to be conducted simultaneously, and updates or upgrades can be implemented at any stage, even after delivery to the customer. Since FPGAs are not designed for specific tasks, businesses or individuals can purchase off-the-shelf FPGAs and configure them according to their specific needs later.
Cost Efficiency
Although FPGAs may initially cost more than microprocessors or ASICs, their re-programmability and gate optimization capabilities make them cost-effective in the long run. They eliminate the need for purchasing multiple ASICs for different functionalities. Additionally, while a design mistake in an ASIC requires a costly overhaul to produce a new chip, FPGAs can simply be reprogrammed to correct errors.
High-Speed and Complex Processing
FPGAs excel in performing high-speed and complex processing tasks due to their ability to handle parallel operations. Though the modern microprocessors perform multiple tasks on several cores with out-of-order instructions, they are not the right fit for massive image or digital signal processing applications. The high-performance FPGA solutions, with their numerous soft and hard microprocessors suit the requirements of high-speed and complex processing, offering superior performance for such applications.
Reduces Manual Intervention
Due to the complementary software that automatically handles functions like routing, placement, and timing to match the programmed specifications, the design cycle of FPGAs is more manageable. As a result, there is a reduced need for manual intervention, making FPGA solutions more reliable and desirable.
Expedited Prototyping
The cornerstone of all the high-performance FPGA solutions is their re-programmability. This adds to their flexibility, reusability, and faster for prototyping and testing. The minimization of costs or errors is also done successfully since any mistakes can be identified during testing can be corrected through reprogramming. Upon validation, the design can be converted into an ASIC, streamlining the development of the prototype.
Applications of FPGA
Jet Autopilot
Autopilots in fighter jets call for minimal response time for processing inputs and outputs so that the manoeuvrability is achieved with high responsive rates. The high-performance FPGA solutions, which do not rely on generic operating systems or buses like USB or PCIe for communication, achieve latencies of around or below 1 microsecond, making them ideal for this application.
Image and Video Processing
High-resolution image and video processing are compute-intensive and require hardware that operates on a stream of pixels rather than a full frame at a time. FPGAs deliver higher performance per watt compared to software on general-purpose CPUs, accelerating the image and video processing tasks.
Data Centers
Efficient server and storage systems are crucial for large-scale data centers. With traditional CPU frequency scaling reaching its limits, there has been a shift towards multicore processing, which faces constraints related to I/O and memory bandwidth. FPGAs provide customized high-bandwidth, low-latency connections to network and storage systems, making them preferred solutions in data centers to boost performance.
Medical Electronics
The use of FPGAs in medical electronics has grown significantly, spanning a wide range of applications. In medical imaging, FPGAs facilitate detection and image reconstruction. These tasks require real-time performance and pose significant hardware interface challenges, which FPGAs handle efficiently due to their high-performance computing capabilities. Additionally, the straightforward system development process associated with FPGAs accelerates the time-to-market for medical products, which is often critical in the healthcare industry.
Conclusion
Trident Techlabs is the pioneer in providing the high-performance FPGA solutions along with a host of engineering tools pertaining to products and design tools, design services such as system-level electronics design, chip-level electronics design, embedded design, hydraulics/ pneumatics system and system modeling to name a few.
