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Hi,
can somebody explain me what exactly are the differences between these positions. May be there are differences in job functions, salary, engineering tools ?
When I hear the expression "VLSI Engineer", I think of someone who is involved with the actual process of producing an ASIC. That can be someone involved in the physical fabrication process including mask making and the various steps involved in creating the physical transistors and metal layers on a wafer.
By "ASIC Engineer" I think of someone who is involved in the creation and verification of the functional aspect of the chip.
According to my definition, I believe that ASIC Engineers on the whole make more money than VLSI engineers. However, it seems like both jobs are on the decline in the US. Many of these types of jobs are being outsourced. A lot of ASIC designers in the US are transitioning to FPGA or high-level system design.
'radix',
That is a very interesting insight...Could you add what the reasons for this alledged decline in the ASIC trade demand ?
I can only substantiate that insight by adding some remarks made by a major ASIC vendor [Fujitsu] in one of these workshops they've conducted a year ago:
1. Their ASIC business declined by 30% in the years 2001/2002.
2. Main reasons [by Fujitsu view] were -
- Rising NRE costs
- The emerging SOC integration - causes lesser ASICs to be designed into customer systems
- The emergence of denser / cheaper FPGAs
I think you covered most of the points why ASICs are on the decline. The other big point is the time to market issue. You tend to have much longer verification times with ASICs than FPGAs. Add to that the lengthy ASIC fabrication process and it takes quite a bit longer to have a working ASIC in hand than an FPGA.
The thing that is good news for ASIC designers tranisitioning to FPGA work is that the flow of a large FPGA is becoming very similar to that of ASIC flow. Having a decent simulation/verification flow, which is a must for ASIC design, is also becoming very important in FPGA designs. Also, achieving timing closure in large state of the art FPGAs is no longer trivial, and is something ASIC designers are used to dealing with.
Don't get me wrong. I think that ASIC design is going to be around for a while. However, here in the Washington DC area, I've seen most of the ASIC jobs disappear of the last several years. And from what I've been reading in some of the trade journals like EE Times, EDN, and Electronic Design about these types of jobs moving off shore, I don't see them returning here in the near future.
I don't think that there is a difference between SoC and FPGA/ASIC designers. Except that in the FPGA world SoC is referred to SoPC (system on a programmable chip). As an ASIC/FPGA desinger the size of your designs will vary. I'm not sure where a design crosses over from just being a regular chip to becoming an SoC.
Hi all
My question is that it seems like there is almost no class to deal with FPGA tech. at my university, If I want to prepare to take this kind of job position after graduation, could you recommend some books?
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