Difference between ASIC and FPGA based synthesis...

[gbaerf]

hi ,

please comment on what is the difference between FPGA and ASIC synthesis
How these are different please tell me the strong tools in these areas as well.

 

[Adam.Yakuvitz]

Basic algorithms are the same between ASIC and FPGA synthesis. However the cost group that each of these tools focus on may be different.

Since ASICs tend to be very cost sensitive, ASIC synthesis tools tend be more orientated on verification and correctness and on Area and timing. ASIC synthesized netlists closely match their RTL.

FPGA's on the other hand are designed for rapid prototyping. These tools on the other hand are designed for Flop vs. LUT Area cost group. Since DFF's are abundant in FPGA compared to glue logic, FPGA tools tend to give more area flexibilty to re-use of DFF's. They tend to do more flop cloning, FSM re-encoding from dense to one-hot etc, to take advantage of more flops on the design for area and timing purposes.

Hope this matter is clear.

--
ay

 

[Mike_D]

Slight nickpick, but FPGA's are used for far more then rapid prototyping. There are many places that use FPGAs in production designs, including a couple of places I've worked at. "Make it your ASIC" has been Xilinx's marketing slogan for the Spartan-3 for a few years.

 

[Adam.Yakuvitz]

Yup! Mike_D is right!
FPGA's are certainly used for production as well. It is marketed in this manner, since there is more money here than in Rapid prototyping. So long as the cost/volume of FPGA's is lower than an ASIC, it is makes for a more cost effective solution. Companies like Xilinx, Altera and AMI do FPGA to ASIC shrinks for mass production of a cheaper ASIC'ized FPGA's.
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ay

 

[alzomor]

Hi

FPGA's are cost efficient if the no of uits to be produced is low but if the the no of units to be produced increase the ASIC will be better.

Also FPGA Give you the capability of upgrading your design or solving any bugs apeard.

FPGA's are used in Products whih is very expensive for example base stations use FPGA's while mobile stations use ASIC

Also Power consumption of FPGA's is more than ASIC

But ASIC needs a huge investment to start developing.

Salam
Hossam Alzomor
www(.)i-g(.)org