Webinar: FPGA Prototyping and ASIC Design

When you think about working with an ASIC service provider like Open-Silicon, you probably think about handling all the architecture, design and verification/validation in your shop, handing over a netlist and some other collateral, then the ASIC services provider takes responsibility for implementation and manufacturing. Plus or minus some options, this is the standard ASIC service model.

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Tue, Mar 21, 2017 8:00 AM – 9:00 AM PDT

But this neat division isn’t always ideal. Detailed verification and validation before implementation may require a model of the design than is more accurate than a virtual prototype, close to the detailed design behavior yet much faster than a simulation. In semiconductor companies FPGA-based prototyping is already a popular solution to this need for an accurate, close to real-time performance model and has become indispensable in early driver development, in checking performance, and in simply getting through high volumes of use-case testing.

These needs apply equally even if you are outsourcing back-end design, with an additional constraint that you may also need a working model to loosen up funding for silicon samples. Yet systems design teams often lack the experience to deal with the arcane details of FPGA prototyping, given the high levels of expertise required in partitioning, setup and making sure your prototype implementation will reasonably match the likely ASIC implementation.

Open-Silicon has the answer to your problem. They offer a service to provide, based on your design, configuration to standard prototyping solutions or an option in which they provide custom FPGA boards. Now system design teams can have access to early prototypes to build demonstration systems, start software development and debug in advance of silicon and greatly accelerate RTL verification over large regression and compliance suites. I’ll be moderating a discussion with two experts on why and how customers may want to take advantage of this capability.

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This joint Open-Silicon and PRO DESIGN Electronic webinar, moderated by Bernard Murphy of SemiWiki, will address the benefits of FPGA-based prototyping in the ASIC design cycle, and the role it plays in significantly reducing the risk and schedules for specification-to-custom SoC (ASIC) development and the volume production ramp. Early software development and real time system verification, enabled by FPGA prototyping, offers a cost-efficient high-end solution that shortens process cycles, boosts reliability, increases design flexibility, and reduces risk and cost. The panelists will outline best practices to overcome technical design challenges encountered in FPGA prototype development, such as design partitioning, real-time interfaces, debug and design bring-up. They will also discuss the key technical advantages that FPGA-based prototyping offers, such as architectural exploration, IP development, acceleration of RTL verification, pre-silicon firmware and software development, proof of concept and demonstrations. They will also talk about its effect on performance, scalability, flexibility, modularity and connectivity.

Who should attend
This webinar is ideal for hardware system architects, hardware designers, SoC designers, ASIC designers, and SoC firmware and software developers.

About Open-Silicon
Open-Silicon transforms ideas into system-optimized ASIC solutions within the time-to-market parameters desired by customers. The company enhances the value of customers’ products by innovating at every stage of design — architecture, logic, physical, system, software and IP — and then continues to partner to deliver fully tested silicon and platforms. Open-Silicon applies an open business model that enables the company to uniquely choose best-in-industry IP, design methodologies, tools, software, packaging, manufacturing and test capabilities. The company has partnered with over 150 companies ranging from large semiconductor and systems manufacturers to high-profile start-ups, and has successfully completed over 300 designs and shipped over 125 million ASICs to date. Privately held, Open-Silicon employs over 250 people in Silicon Valley and around the world. www.open-silicon.com