Отправлено PicoDev2 08 февраля 2005 г. 02:54 В ответ на: RECONFIGURABLE MICRO-CONTROLLER, Лед тронулся... отправлено PicoDev2 08 февраля 2005 г. 02:48

FPGA Could Double ST, Analyst Says
By David Manners -- Electronics Weekly, 2/7/2005

STMicroelectronics is nurturing a product that could double the size of the company, according to an industry analyst.

The product, unveiled last October, is GOSPL (generalized open source programming logic), which provides a reconfigurable silicon fabric to be used in ASSPs, ASICs or SOCs, along with a million lines of source code, a complete EDA toolset, and synthesis, placement, routing and timing analysis.

"It could double the size of ST overnight," said Malcolm Penn, CEO of analyst Future Horizons.

"The whole world wants programmable SOC, and FPGA is not the answer -- it's too big, too expensive, too power-hungry," he added.

It allows chip developers and fabless semiconductor companies to include low-cost, low-power, reconfigurable logic blocks in their designs, so making SOCs more generic, more re-usable, applicable to a wider customer base, and vastly cheaper.

"It is a product which is the dream of everyone working in the FPGA field," Andrea Cuomo, chief strategic officer at ST, told Electronics Weekly.

The last time a standard programmable part came along to revolutionize the industry's economics was in the 1970s, when the microprocessor decimated the costs of building equipment that were then based on custom chips.