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The Different Processes Of Chip Production

Though>are quite different, their concept is similar since they both implement logic HW applications. Actually FPGA is some kind of ready-made ASIC with a programmable design, and the only difference between it and a regular full ASIC chip is the fact its logical functions are configurable by the user (FPGA designer), and not pre-determined by the producer of the circuit (ASIC designer). Of course this is not entirely true, as FPGA's configurability is somewhat limited and contains a lot of overhead, manifested in power, cost and maximum frequency, but the general idea holds. Typical ASIC process includes three main stages: definition and exploration, implementation and finally testing before tape-out. The definition stage includes considerations of Marketing, Requirements and Specifications (MRS) in addition to definition of the circuit architecture. After the logic design is simulated and verified, physical implementation stage begins. The final stage is the post layout verification which includes physical and formal parts, plus timing analysis and signal integrity checks. FGPA of course lacks the manufacturing parts but its programming becomes the main part of the design. Eventually, most of the disadvantages of the FPGA would affect the need of the design to be debugged. Verification would take 50% and more time of the work. Still the system will be less efficient than ASIC due to its shortcomings, but the save of the pre-design stages is shortening the time until a prototype of the system is created and this is a great advantage. In conclusion, again we can see that the choice of the design technology is related available to a lot of constraints, such a time to market, budget and several other factors. While an ASIC achieves better results in terms of power, speed and cost, an FPGA benefits from faster time to lab/market. So the ideal flow would be to combine the two and start off using an FPGA and as soon as the product is ready, convert it to an ASIC Conversion and benefit from the reduced power and cost.




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