siXis value proposition: A little bit substrate, a little bit FPGA prototyping board

We all know that there are few truly radical ideas in the world. Everything builds on what has gone on before. That’s why it’s a little bit tricky to figure out how revolutionary the “silicon board” from siXis Inc. truly is. R. Colin Johnson gave a great overview of the concept in EE Times Aug. 24.

You might think of this the way you’d listen to a jazz-klezmer-rockabilly riff: No single element may be original, but the company sure has given us a unique mash-up which is not quite like anything that’s come before. We’ve watched current and former substrate specialists, notably RF specialists like Tropian, experiment with substrates that went far beyond the hybrids of 20 years ago. We’ve seen development and EDA specialists from National Instruments Inc. to GateRocket play with FPGAs that are intended to serve the prototype role once assigned to ASICs. But have we seen FPGAs and memories bonded to cute little boards that are anything like what siXis has demonstrated, courtesy of technology from RTI International?

One always has to watch out for hyperbole when a marketing team stumbles upon a riff or mashup that no one has encountered before. One such siXis board is unlikely to kill all ASICs, but in any event, ASICs were on their death bed long before siXis came along. The point is that this is an interesting concept that may deserve a few repeat plays before we decide how general-purpose these “silicon boards” will be.