Does anyone know if Xilinx, Altera, or some of the others hold key patents in fpga architectures that barr entry of some of the traditional microprocessor companies. I have seen that ST has dabbled in embedded in FPGAs in the last few years, and have come up with their own proprietary embedded FPGA architecture. However, in the end they have abandonded it for 3rd party architectures. Does anyone have an idea why?
Andreas
Discontinued products most often result from a lack of paying customers.
-- Mike Treseler
Here are some lines I have used in presentations:
The maturing FPGA market Dominated by two players, Xilinx and Altera With 52% and 34% market share = 86% combined Remaining players scramble for niches All non-dedicated players have given up: Intel, T.I., Motorola, NSC, AMD, Cypress, Philips, ST... Late-comers have been absorbed or failed: Dynachip, PlusLogic, Triscend, Siliconspice (absorbed) Chameleon, Quicksilver, Morphics, Adaptive Silicon ...
It;s not just because of patents The big guys lack the focus, the small ones lack the resources. Peter Alfke
On a sunny day (29 Apr 2005 13:26:34 -0700) it happened "Peter Alfke" wrote in :
Actel has nice flash based stuff. Now there is a security leap. Finally we can violate all patents, and nobody can prove it. I love it.
A good 'presentation party line', but there is still room for innovation, and this work looks interesting :
As processes shrink, the resource split that made sense 10+ years ago, can be sub-optimal today - but there are SW and tools inertia that wants to keep the 'same old' LUT structures...
A cell between the newer DSP blocks, and the older LUT, could make sense = 4 Bit ALU used by elixent ?. 4 bit ALUs do go a long way back - IIRC the AMD 2901 ?
-jg
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