Altera FPGA Conversions

Altera announced the discontinuation of many of their FPGA lines last December. This includes the MAX, Flex, and early Acex and Apex families. Customers are given the opportunity to make a last time buy of these products. And for many customers, this is the best choice.

But for some customers, it is not the best choice. Making a last time buy means that you have a reasonable understanding of your future requirements, and you are willing to tie up capital to buy a multi-year supply of these products. If your products are continuing to do well, or even growing in volume, then it is both difficult and risky to forecast the entire future demand, and an FPGA conversion should be considered.

The FPGA conversion will generally cost a lot less than the original FPGAs. But conversions also have an associated NRE. This produces a breakeven volume point where the unit savings equal the NRE charges. If this point is reached in 6 to 9 months, a conversion is economical. If it takes longer, then the conversion must be justified by other means, such as strategic availability.

Tekmos has developed several methods of reducing the NREs, making it possible to lower the breakeven point. The first is what we call a merge. In a merge, we combine multiple designs on a single piece of silicon. Each individual design is activated through a bond option during assembly. This allows all the designs to share the costs of a mask set and a wafer run, which are the main components to a NRE charge. Of course, each design must be individually converted, assembled, and tested. Still, the NRE charge per part is much less than the charges if each part was individually converted.

Merges have another advantage. By combining multiple designs on a single die, the volume for that die is the combined total for all the devices in the merge. Wafer fabs will make quarter half lots, but there is a financial penalty in doing so. A merge may allow a single order for multiple parts to obtain better wafer pricing.

Another way to reduce costs is to use a more advanced technology for the FPGA conversion. For 180nm and up, all the NRE charges are equivalent. In many cases, the operating voltage will determine the technology. As a very rough rule of thumb, the technology * 10 is equal to the maximum operating voltage. This sets the minimum die size, and that sets the manufacturing costs.

Tekmos can get around this limitation by using an on-chip voltage regulator to produce the lower core voltages while allowing the I/O voltages to be the same as the original FPGA. Since the newer technologies have significant density advantages, this can result in a smaller die size, and thus a lower cost.

So, if you get an EOL notice from your FPGA vendor, remember that you do have options, and that Tekmos can help you realize those options. Contact us today for more information.  Contact Tekmos Sales

Date

2018-03-13