Quantifying And Exploring The Gap Between Fpgas And Asics

Quantifying and Exploring the Gap Between FPGAs and ASICs

Field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), which are pre-fabricated, programmable digital integrated circuits (ICs), provide easy access to state-of-the-art integrated circuit process technology, and in doing so, democratize this technology of our time. This book is about comparing the qualities of FPGA – their speed performance, area and power consumption, against custom-fabricated ICs, and exploring ways of mitigating their de ciencies. This work began as a question that many have asked, and few had the resources to answer – how much worse is an FPGA compared to a custom-designed chip? As we dealt with that question, we found that it was far more dif cult to answer than we anticipated, but that the results were rich basic insights on fundamental understandings of FPGA architecture. It also encouraged us to nd ways to leverage those insights to seek ways to make FPGA technology better, which is what the second half of the book is about. While the question “How much worse is an FPGA than an ASIC?” has been a constant sub-theme of all research on FPGAs, it was posed most directly, some time around May 2004, by Professor Abbas El Gamal from Stanford University to us – he was working on a 3D FPGA, and was wondering if any real measurements had been made in this kind of comparison. Shortly thereafter we took it up and tried to answer in a serious way.

100 Power Tips for FPGA Designers

Radiation Effects on Integrated Circuits and Systems for Space Applications

This book provides readers with invaluable overviews and updates of the most important topics in the radiation-effects field, enabling them to face significant challenges in the quest for the insertion of ever-higher density and higher performance electronic components in satellite systems. Readers will benefit from the up-to-date coverage of the various primary (classical) sub-areas of radiation effects, including the space and terrestrial radiation environments, basic mechanisms of total ionizing dose, digital and analog single-event transients, basic mechanisms of single-event effects, system-level SEE analysis, device-level, circuit-level and system-level hardening approaches, and radiation hardness assurance. Additionally, this book includes in-depth discussions of several newer areas of investigation, and current challenges to the radiation effects community, such as radiation hardening by design, the use of Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) components in space missions, CubeSats and SmallSats, the use of recent generation FPGA’s in space, and new approaches for radiation testing and validation. The authors provide essential background and fundamentals, in addition to information on the most recent advances and challenges in the sub-areas of radiation effects. Provides a concise introduction to the fundamentals of radiation effects, latest research results, and new test methods and procedures; Discusses the radiation effects and mitigation solutions for advanced integrated circuits and systems designed to operate in harsh radiation environments; Includes coverage of the impact of Small Satellites in the space industry.