What would be the break-even point for moving FPGA to ASIC?

[davorin]

ASIC costs...

Just out of curiosity (o;

What would be the breakeven point for moving FPGA to ASIC?

Let´s say when does it makes sense to put a EP1C6 cyclone design into an ASIC and which minimum quantity would be needed and what price to expect (besides design tools), like initial costs etc.

 

[speedoak]

Re: ASIC costs...

Just out of curiosity (o;

What would be the breakeven point for moving FPGA to ASIC?

Let´s say when does it makes sense to put a EP1C6 cyclone design into an ASIC and which minimum quantity would be needed and what price to expect (besides design tools), like initial costs etc.

I will stay at FPGA, the NRE cost of ASIC is so huge right now, cannot afford it. fpga price is going down, but ASIC NRE cost is going up

 

[linuxluo]

Re: ASIC costs...

hi,
you can just estimate it.
NRE for 0.25um is about $160k
NRE for 0.18um is about $300k
but if tapeout suceed, the product price is much lower than fpga.

 

[pisoiu]

Re: ASIC costs...

Like Davorin, just curious..what means NRE? And what are the justifications of such high costs anyway? As far as I know, the materials are not very expensive, I cannot imagine the materials inside a PC processor more than few $, eventually tens of $. The rest of the cost is intelectual property. But in this case, the IP belong to the client, so why this high cost??

/pisoiu

 

[davorin]

Re: ASIC costs...

I would say that NRE stands for something like: Non Returning Expenses or something similar...basically initial costs to get you started...

Also thought it would be a little lower...can´t imagine how smaller companies like Axis managed to make on CPUs...

 

[sawaak]

Re: ASIC costs...

Hi,
NRE cost stands for "Non Recurring Engineering" cost, yes it is the initial cost to get started, it occurs once in a project, as opposed to maintenance cost etc which are Recurring costs.

As far as high costs are concerned, just look at the cost of building and running a high tech foundry.
yes the materials are not expensive but their processing is.

thanks
sawaak

 

[miho]

Re: ASIC costs...

just to add to the NRE cost estimates for smaller technologies. these are numbers i heard from various sources.

130nm: $1M
90nm: $2M

although these are estimates, they clearly show a trend, ASICs are becoming less affordable for small numbers. if you are looking into replacing an FPGA by an ASIC for cost reasons, maybe have a look at Hardcopy by Altera. that is economically sensible already for smaller numbers.