ASIC vs. FPGA Logic - ASIC Design

Semicustom Logic

ASIC vs. FPGA Logic - ASIC Design Chart

Here is a brief summary of digital Integrated Circuit logic implementation.

Implementation strategies are organized by semiconductor memory technology, to indicate possible cost reduction migration paths. All digital IC semiconductor solutions are first separated into two main categories - Standard (or universal) Logic, and Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) Logic. ASIC design may be custom, or semicustom. User-programmable logic becomes confusing, and must be separated between "PLD" devices, and FPGA devices.

Which should you choose for ASIC design, gate array or FPGA? Many factors are involved, including time-to-market, complexity (gate count), time to working silicon, ease of implementing design changes, anticipated market size, cost considerations, ASIC vendor track record, etc.

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ASIC Suppliers
Gate Arrays -	Atmel, Chip Express, Fujitsu, LSI Logic, Oki, Toshiba, TSMC
Standard Logic Suppliers
A. - CPLDs (fuse-based) -	AMD, intel
B. - CPLDs (UV-based) -	Altera, Atmel, Xylinx
C. - CPLDs (EE-based) -	AMD, Atmel, Cypress, Lattice
D. - FPGAs (fuse-based) -	Actel, Quicklogic
E. - FPGAs (SRAM-based) -	Altera, Atmel, Xilinx
Standard Logic (CMOS, TTL) -	Quality, SGS, Toshiba
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This Vaughns 1-Pagers FPGA vs. Gate Arrays ASIC Design Chart web page was updated on 2007-05-10.