Blue state blues

There is no debating that the newer entrants in the FPGA arena face an uphill battle against the likes of goliaths Xilinx and Altera. However, I believe that the SiliconBlue and Actel low-power devices have good compelling advantages for some applications. I've been working with EPLDs, CPLDS, and FPGAs for nearly 25 years now. The Actel Igloo and SiliconBlue iCE65 low power products offer significant advantages in low-power applications. I helped develop portions of the SiliconBlue evaluation board so I've been playing with the SiliconBlue parts for awhile now. Both product families offer nearly a 1,000 times reduction in power at low frequencies. Having used Xilinx and Altera FPGAs in design for years, I first thought that my bench power supply had failed when I first started playing with the SiliconBlue parts. The SiliconBlue part just wasn't drawing any current (okay, it was 17 uA at 32KHz using a good meter, but that is essentially zero compared to the 35 mA on the previous FPGA). Also, I believe that SiliconBlue does have access to advanced process technology courtesy of TSMC. SiliconBlue claims to use a 65 nm, low-power process which gives them a cost/density advantage over other competing FPGA and CPLD products plus a dynamic power advantage because the core operates at a lower voltage. As for architectural expertise, the SiliconBlue management team comes from the likes of Xilinx, Altera, Lattice, QuickLogic, and MMI. Having actually used the parts, you call that these these guys know what they're doing. Another area of innovation for both Actel and SiliconBlue is packaging. Both offer the standard fare of packages for everyday applications (QPFs). Both companies also provide leading-edge small BGA packages for portable applications. SiliconBlue goes even farther and offers wafer-level chip-scale parts (essentially a silicon die with small BGA balls) and known-good die (KGD). Obviously, these packages (or no packages in the case of die) are targeted for advanced, portable applications. Low-power controllers like Atmel's CAP7L, Cypress Semi's pSOC are great, but they often lack the performance, the high I/O count, and the multi-voltage, multi-standard interface flexibility offered by an FPGA. Now with low-power FPGAs like Actel's and SiliconBlue's, you actually have a choice in your design. Before, FPGAs just were not practical in low-power applications due to the significantly larger power consumption. By the way, I would add the Texas Instruments MSP430 family and various SiliconLabs' products to the list of worthy low-power controllers. For sure, Actel and SiliconBlue face an uphill fight bhe the FPGA market has always been a highly-competitive fray. SiliconBlue, however, seems highly focused on low-power, hand-held applications and IMHO provides compelling advantages that warrant consideration for a new design. Steve Knapp Prevailing Technology, Inc. www.prevailing-technology.com