FPGA prototyping

Field-programmable gate array prototyping (FPGA prototyping), also referred to as FPGA-based prototyping, ASIC prototyping or system-on-chip (SoC) prototyping, is the method to prototype system-on-chip and application-specific integrated circuit designs on FPGAs for hardware verification and early software development. Verification methods for hardware design as well as early software and firmware co-design have become mainstream. Prototyping SoC and ASIC designs with one or more FPGAs and electronic design automation (EDA) software has become a good method to do this. Running a SoC design on FPGA prototype is a reliable way to ensure that it is functionally correct. This is compared to designers only relying on software simulations to verify that their hardware design is sound. About a third of all current SoC designs are fault-free during first silicon pass, with nearly half of all re-spins caused by functional logic errors. A single prototyping platform can provide verification for hardware, firmware, and application software design functionality before the first silicon pass. Time-to-market (TTM) is reduced from FPGA prototyping: In today's technological driven society, new products are introduced rapidly, and failing to have a product ready at a given market window can cost a company a considerable amount of revenue. If a product is released too late of a market window, then the product could be rendered useless, costing the company its investment capital in the product. After the design process, FPGAs are ready for production, while standard cell ASICs take more than six months to reach production. Development cost: Development cost of 90-nm ASIC/SoC design tape-out is around $20 million, with a mask set costing over$1 million alone. Development costs of 45-nm designs are expected to top $40 million. With increasing cost of mask sets, and the continuous decrease of IC size, minimizing the number of re-spins is vital to the development process. Design for prototyping (DFP) refers to designing systems that are amenable to prototyping.