Moving from FPGA’s to Embedded FPGA Fabric – How it’s Done

Moving from FPGA’s to Embedded FPGA Fabric – How it’s Done
by Tom Simon on 01-15-2018 at 12:00 pm

Buying IP is just a little bit more complicated than buying a pair of shoes. A lot of IP is configurable and requires attention to various design and configuration parameters. We live in an age where commercial soft IP is used pretty often in designs, so people have developed increasing comfort in the process that is required to achieve… Read More


The lofty rise of the lowly FPGA

The lofty rise of the lowly FPGA
by Tom Simon on 01-10-2018 at 7:00 am

FPGA programmable logic has served in many capacities since it was introduced back in the early 80’s. Recently, with designers looking for innovative ways to boost system performance, FPGA’s have moved front and center. This initiative has taken on new urgency with the slowing down of process node based performance gains. The… Read More


"The Year of the eFPGA" 2017 Recap

"The Year of the eFPGA" 2017 Recap
by Tom Dillinger on 12-22-2017 at 7:00 am

This past January, I had postulated that 2017 would be the “Year of the Embedded FPGA”, as a compelling IP offering for many SoC designs (link). As the year draws to a close, I thought it would be interesting to see how that prediction turned out.

The criteria that would be appropriate metrics include: increasing capital investment;… Read More


The perfect pairing of SOCs and embedded FPGA IP

The perfect pairing of SOCs and embedded FPGA IP
by Tom Simon on 10-30-2017 at 12:00 pm

In life, there are some things that just go together. Imagine the world without peanut butter and jelly, eggs and potatoes, telephones and voicemail, or the internet and search engines. In the world of computing there are many such examples – UARTS and FIFO’s, processor cores and GPU’s, etc. Another trait all these things have is… Read More


Timing Analysis for Embedded FPGA’s

Timing Analysis for Embedded FPGA’s
by Tom Dillinger on 10-25-2017 at 7:00 am

The initial project planning for an SoC design project faces a difficult engineering decision with regards to the “margin” that should be included as part of timing closure. For cell-based blocks, the delay calculation algorithms within the static timing analysis (STA) flow utilize various assumptions to replaceRead More


How standard-cell based eFPGA IP can offer maximum safety, flexibility and TTM?

How standard-cell based eFPGA IP can offer maximum safety, flexibility and TTM?
by Eric Esteve on 10-19-2017 at 12:00 pm

Writing a white paper is never tedious, and when the product or the technology is emerging, it can become fascinating. Like for this white paper I have written for Menta “How Standard Cell Based eFPGA IP are Offering Maximum Flexibility to New System-on-Chip Generation”. eFPGA technology is not really emerging, but it’s fascinatingRead More


Accelerating Accelerators

Accelerating Accelerators
by Bernard Murphy on 10-19-2017 at 7:00 am

Accelerating compute-intensive software functions by moving them into hardware has a long history, stretching back (as far as I remember) to floating-point co-processors. Modern SoCs are stuffed with these applications, from signal processors, to graphics processors, codecs and many more functions. All of these accelerators… Read More


Embedded FPGA IP as a Post-Silicon Debugger

Embedded FPGA IP as a Post-Silicon Debugger
by Tom Dillinger on 09-08-2017 at 12:00 pm

The hardware functionality of a complex SoC is difficult to verify. Embedded software developed for a complex, multi-core SoC is extremely difficult to verify. An RTOS may need to be ported and validated. Application software needs to be developed, and optimized for performance. Sophisticated methodologies are employed to… Read More


Embedding FPGA IP

Embedding FPGA IP
by Bernard Murphy on 09-05-2017 at 7:00 am

The appeal of embedding an FPGA IP in an ASIC design is undeniable. For much of your design, you want all the advantages of ASIC: up to GHz performance, down to mW power (with active power management), all with very high levels of integration with a broad range of internal and 3[SUP]rd[/SUP]-party IP (analog/RF, sensor fusion, image/voice… Read More


Embedded FPGA Blocks as Functional Accelerators (AMBA Architecture, with FREE Verilog Examples!)

Embedded FPGA Blocks as Functional Accelerators (AMBA Architecture, with FREE Verilog Examples!)
by Tom Dillinger on 07-20-2017 at 7:00 am

A key application for embedded FPGA (eFPGA) technology is to provide functionality for specific algorithms — as the throughput of this implementation exceeds the equivalent code executing on a processor core, these SoC blocks are often referred to as accelerators. The programmability of eFPGA technology offers additional… Read More