Global FPGA Situation and FPGA Manufacturer List
2024-02-27 18:08:45 925
Integrated circuits are known as the "crown jewel" of high-end manufacturing, and in integrated circuits, FPGA is also known as the "universal chip". As a customized chip, its flexibility and efficiency are unmatched by other types of chips. For many years, FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array) technology has been monopolized by only a few large companies, but now, this situation is quietly changing, and domestic companies are also rising. Today, I recommend this article to you on how FPGA manufacturers can expand and expand their new business. At the same time, it lists more than ten old and new FPGA companies in foreign and domestic markets.
Article Index
- FPGA dilemma
- How to grow bigger?
- AI chips, FPGA has unique advantages
- FPGA vs. GPU, eFPGA prototype?
- FPGA vs ASIC, love and kill each other?
- Domestic and international situations
1. What are the manufacturers in the international market?
2. What are the rising stars in the domestic market?
Due to the fact that the traditional FPGA market is mainly distributed in small-scale fields such as communication, military industry, and chip prototype verification, the market capacity is relatively small, but the development is not easy to use, so it has always been in a quiet environment. Even the two giants, Xilinx FPGA (AMD FPGA) and Altera FPGA (acquired by Intel), which occupy the main share of the FPGA market, have not had a good time. If you guard your own one acre and three quarters of land, there may be someone coming to conquer the city and seize the land one day. Acronix is a vivid example, so it is time to consider making the cake bigger.
In recent years, the rise of AI, big data, and the Internet of Things seems to be giving FPGA some inspiration. In terms of development history, since Xilinx created the first FPGA in 1984, FPGA has been playing the role of a coprocessor. Should we break through and share the chip and system markets? Obviously, there is already an answer.
The development of FPGA, like all science and technology, relies on two driving forces: research and development by major companies in related fields, as well as scientific research by major universities and research institutions. While meeting short-term practical output, it also covers long-term technological breakthroughs and breakthroughs in the future.
As far as research institutions are concerned, FPGA has its own circle, and there is a popular annual conference in this circle - the FPGA International Symposium (ISFPGA), which has been the flagship summit in the FPGA field since 1993. The articles published on ISFPGA represent the forefront and best research achievements of FPGA, and are also regarded by industry insiders as wind indicators for predicting the future development direction of FPGA.
The most recent ISFPGA conference was held in February 2019, which focused on two major research directions based on many new research achievements, namely:
1: Artificial intelligence+, such as FPGA microarchitecture, FPGA programming tools and languages, as well as various applications of FPGA in AI+.
2: High Level Synthesis (HLS) of FPGA, which means using high-level languages such as C++/OpenCL/Python to effectively program and use FPGA.
Overview of the HeteroCL framework | From:ISFPGA
From the perspective of major companies, chip manufacturing technology is difficult to continuously shrink, and improving the performance of multi-core CPUs is becoming increasingly difficult. This has brought opportunities to major FPGA manufacturers, or indirectly driven the development of the FPGA industry, and some new forms have emerged. Of course, these forms and some of the expectations of scientific research institutions are self-evident, mostly concentrated in emerging markets such as computing acceleration. Bing acceleration can be seen as an introduction in recent years, and Mac Pro equipped with FPGA acceleration cards is another example.
For AI chips, FPGA has unique advantages
How to position oneself in the field of AI chips, which has become a red ocean? In terms of current development direction, FPGA has two paths. One is to transform from a specialized device in a certain field like GPU to a widely used "infrastructure". There are many voices supporting this idea, including Intel. The other way is to compete with ASIC with the advantages of flexibility and low technological risk.
FPGA vs. GPU, eFPGA prototype?
In recent years, the amount and accessibility of data have grown rapidly, and deep learning has received great attention from the industry. However, only better hardware acceleration conditions can meet the needs of the continued expansion of existing data and model scales. The existing solution uses a graphics processing unit (GPU) cluster as a universal computing graphics processing unit (GPGPU). The high-level synthesis of FPGA provides another solution, which can optimize and explore models outside of fixed architectures such as GPUs. Meanwhile, FPGA has stronger performance per unit energy consumption, which is crucial for the research of large-scale server deployment or resource limited embedded applications.
"With the further maturity and solidification of AI algorithms, AI chips will eventually move towards ASICs." This can be considered a mainstream statement. But the speed of AI algorithm iteration and application innovation will continue for a long time, making it a great stage for FPGA to play its flexibility and adaptability, and a good partner for ASIC qualitative training.
Domestic and international situation
According to Research and Markets, FPGA will be the segment with the highest compound annual growth rate from 2018 to 2023. The data center accelerator market is expected to grow from $2.84 billion in 2018 to $21.19 billion in 2023, with a compound annual growth rate of 49.7%. The driving force behind this rapid growth comes from the adoption of FPGA in enterprise level workloads such as computing, networking, storage, and sensor processing.
According to MRFR statistics, the global FPGA market size in 2018 was around 6 billion US dollars. With the gradual expansion of AI+5G applications, its market size is expected to reach 12.5 billion US dollars by 2025, with a compound annual growth rate of 10.22%. In the Asia Pacific region, especially in China, due to the expansion of emerging infrastructure applications, the compound growth rate of FPGA is expected to be higher than other regions, becoming an important incremental market for FPGA.
Year 2013~2025 Global FPGA Market Size (Millions of US dollars)|From:MRFR
In the context of visible market prospects, major domestic and foreign manufacturers are vigorously launching new products and gradually transitioning from chip manufacturers to system manufacturers in order to obtain a larger cake.
1. What are the manufacturers in the international market?
Focusing on chip level design and exploring new breakthroughs of FPGA in cloud and edge computing is what two international giants Xilinx and Intel (Altera) are doing. For secondary market vendors such as Microsemi (Microchip), Lattice, Acronix, QuickLogic Corp, seeking cooperation with various board or system level solution vendors is their best choice.
FPGA Main manufacturers and their market share| From:MRFR
Xilinx Inc
https://www.amd.com/
Xilinx Company was founded in 1984. Xilinx pioneered the innovative technology of Field Programmable Logic Array (FPGA) and launched its first commercial product in 1985. It is a leading global supplier of complete programmable logic solutions and currently the number one FPGA solution provider. It was acquired by AMD in 2022.
The product series includes:
- Spartan series: positioned in the low-end market, currently the latest device is the Spartan 7 using a 28nm process;
- Artix series: positioned in the mid-range market between low-end Spartan and high-end Kinex, the mainstream product currently on sale is the Artix-7 with a 28nm process;
- Kindex series: positioned in the high-end market, it includes the Kindex7 series with 28nm technology, the 20nm Kindex7 Ultrascale series, and the 16nm Kindex7 Ultrascale+series;
- Virtex series: positioned in the high-end market, it includes the Virtex 7 series with 28nm technology, the Virtex 7 Ultrascale series with 20nm technology, and the Virtex 7 Ultrascale+series with 16nm technology;
- Fully programmable SoC and MPSoC series: including Zynq-7000 and Zynq UltraScale+MPSoC series FPGA, embedded ARM Cortex series CPU;
- AI Engine series: Versal ACAP, Alveo series, etc.
Intel (Altera Corporation)
Altera Corporation is an FPGA supplier, and was acquired by Intel in 2015.
The product series includes:
MAXII series: essentially CPLD;
- Cyclone series: positioned in the mid to low end market, similar to Xilinx's Spartan and Artix series, with the latest product being Cyclone10.
- Stratix series: positioned in the high-end market, competing with Xilinx's Kinex and Virtex series, with the latest product being Stratix10;
- Arria series: SOC series FPGA with built-in ARM Cortex A9 core;
- Intel Arria 10 series: FPGA that supports DDR4 memory interface, hardware designers can use Quartus II software v14.1 to achieve 666 Mbps DDR4 memory data rate in Arria 10 FPGA and SoC design;
- Agilex series: An FPGA product designed for high-end markets such as data centers, using 10nm technology and heterogeneous 3D system level packaging (SiP) technology.
Microsemi (Actel / Microchip)
https://www.microsemi.com/
In 2020, Microsemi acquired Actel, which focuses on the US military and aviation industries. Its products are mainly anti fuse structure FPGAs and Flash based FPGAs, with advantages of radiation resistance and high reliability. Recently, Microsemi was acquired by Microchip.
The product series includes:
- The universal FPGA series based on FLASH includes three high-end, mid-range, and low-end series: PolarFire Mid Range FPGAs, RTG4 Radiation Telerant FPGAs, and IGLOO2 Low DensityFPGAs.
- Special field application series: such as SOC based Mi-V RISC-V Ecosystem and SmartFusion2 SoC FPGA.
Lattice Semiconductor
https://www.latticesemi.com/
Lattice is the inventor of CPLD and a renowned provider of programmable logic solutions, second only to Xilinx and Altera.
The product series includes:
- ECP series: an FPGA series developed by Lattice itself, providing low-cost, high-density FPGA solutions, as well as high-speed Serdes and other interfaces, suitable for civilian product solutions;
- ICE series: In order to acquire SilioncBlue's ultra-low power FPGA, it was used in the iPhone 7 and achieved the first application of FPGA in consumer products;
- Mach series: the best choice to replace CPLD and achieve adhesive logic.
Quick Logic Corporation
https://www.quicklogic.com/
Quick Logic Corporation was founded in 1988 and is a development company for ultra-low power embedded field programmable gate array (eFPGA) IP, multi-core speech recognition SoC, display bridging, and programmable logic solutions.
The eFPGA product series includes the ArcicPro series using 65nm and 40nm processes, and the ArcicPro 2 eFPGA using GF-22 processes.
Achronix Semiconductor Corporation
As a rising star, Acronix initially launched eFPGA IP, but due to the slow monetization speed of IP products, it subsequently launched FPGA chips. The new product released in May this year is called Speedater7t.
2. What are the rising stars in the domestic market?
At present, domestic FPGA is still in its early stages, with products mainly at 40nm and 55nm. Domestic substitution is still the main investment focus in the FPGA industry. How to break through and innovate has always been a challenge for domestic FPGA companies. Effectively solving chip cost, performance, and power consumption issues at the same process node is crucial for producing mid to low-end products. How to solve the reliability problem of high-end products and how to develop efficient software tools are the key. There are many problems, but we cannot stop working hard, we still have to survive, and even dream of one day surpassing international giants. The development of AI and 5G may be an opportunity. Here are a few major domestic FPGA manufacturers, let's take a look at what they are all doing?
Gowin Semiconductor
Gowin Semiconductor was founded in 2014 and is an integrated circuit enterprise with FPGA chips of 55nm and above as its main products. It is positioned as a mid to high end and medium-sized FPGA chip. Gowin's IC team is relatively excellent, but Application/IP and EDA tools still need further strengthening.
The main product series include the GW2A-18 series, GW2A-55 series, GW2AR-18 series of the Chenxi family, as well as the GW1N series, GW1NS series, GW1NZ series, GW1NSR series, GW1NSE safety FPGA products, and GW1NRF series Bluetooth FPGA products of the Little Bee family.
Anlogic Infotech
Anlogic Infotech was founded in 2011 and is a manufacturer that provides programmable logic devices (FPGAs), programmable system level chips, customized embedded eFPGA IPs, and related software design tools and system solutions.
The main product series include: Phoenix series for the high-end market, Eagle series for the mid-range market, and ELF series for the low-end market.
Intelligence Silicon
Founded in 2012, Intelligence Silicon is a high-tech enterprise founded by overseas students returning to China. It is a supplier of integrated circuit manufacturing and application for programmable logic circuits (FPGA and CPLD).
The main product series include: Seagull CPLD, Seagull128, and Seagull256.
Pango
Pango is a subsidiary of Guoxin Micro, a subsidiary of Unigroup Guoxin Microelectronics Co., Ltd. It is engaged in the research and sales of editable logic devices (FPGA, CPLD, etc.), mainly focusing on communication, information security, AI, data centers, industrial Internet of Things, and other fields.
The main product series include: Titan series PGT180H and Logo series PGL22G.
Chengdu Sino Microelectronics
http://www.csmsc.com/
Chengdu Sino Microelectronics Technology Co., Ltd. is a national 909 engineering enterprise, affiliated with China Electronics Information Industry Group. It was jointly invested and founded by four shareholders: China Huada Integrated Circuit Design Co., Ltd., Chengdu Chengdian University Science and Technology Park Co., Ltd., Chengdu Innovation Venture Capital Co., Ltd., and Chengdu Huawei Employee Team.
The main product models include: HWD1472/14144/14288/750L/4005E/4010E/4013E, HWDV100/300/600, HWD1000/2V1000/3000/6000.
Shanghai Fudan Microelectronics
Shanghai Fudan Microelectronics Group Co., Ltd. is a domestic research institution engaged in the design, development, and provision of system solutions for ultra large scale integrated circuits. It is one of the few independent FPGA research institutions in China. But its products are mainly supplied to the military, so specific information is less disclosed.
Hercules Microelectronics
https://www.hercules-micro.com/
Hercules Microelectronics actually has two product lines, the Kingsoft series, which targets the mid to low end market and acquires the product line of CSwitch from the United States, targeting companies in the high-speed communication market.
The main product models include: M7 Huashan series, HR3 pure FPGA low-power series, M5 Jinshan series, and M1 Hengshan series.
AGM Micro
After more than three years of development, Aogexin has accumulated five different product lines, targeting the CPLD, LoT, FPGA, FPGA+CPU, and SoC markets.
771/772 Institute
At present, the major suppliers of aerospace grade FPGA chips in China are 771 and 772, both of which have FPGA business units and chip production lines.
With the expansion of application fields, the enrichment of developer ecosystems, and the evolution of high-level comprehensive programming languages, the forms of FPGA will become more diverse, and the market will become more and more widespread.
What will happen to FPGA in the future? It is definitely not a simple logical expansion and speed improvement.
For international giants, it is urgent or already being done to deploy cloud FPGA ecology as soon as possible, start edge computing, and combine other applications to form SoC with flexibility and performance.
For domestic FPGA companies, seizing the opportunity of AI+5G, being down-to-earth, and continuously narrowing the gap with giants through the implementation of talent and technology is the primary task.
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