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March 4th, 2010 admin Leave a comment Go to comments

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FPGA design services: whether to use them?

FPGA (field-programmable gate array) is a silicon chip with a programmable internal structure frequently used in electronics design. FPGA-based approach has advantages of reprogrammability and shorter time-to-market.

The possibility of using third-party FPGA design services is based on the fact that FPGA design services can be easily outsourced. Indeed, outsourcing of the FPGA design tasks is somewhat similar to the software development outsourcing. Outsourcing FPGA design to countries with emerging markets (that is, using FPGA design services from those countries) can greatly reduce expenses due to lower labor costs.

Outsourcing vs. subcontracting

FPGA design services can be utilized either through outsourcing or via subcontracting. The main difference is that outsourcing usually implies more tight business processes integration between the customer and the service provider, whereas subcontracting usually means that the service provider is working relatively independently, but the process of delivery is defined more strictly. However, the border between these two terms (outsourcing and subcontracting) for the particular case of FPGA design services is smooth enough, so these terms are often used interchangeably.

When it is feasible to use external FPGA design services?

Basically, the amount of work and its regularity should be considered first before taking a decision on ordering 3rd-party FPGA design services. The following cases can be distinguished:

* The company must perform FPGA design regularly and has enough human resources. In this case it is usually better to give FPGA design tasks to the engineers of the company. However, the possibility of using external FPGA design services still can be considered if the budgets are tight.

* The company key specialization is something else, and it must perform FPGA design rarely or occasionally. Since FPGA design business process involves several subprocesses (the most important of them being Verilog/VHDL design and Verification) that must be performed by different people, it may be not feasible to perform FPGA design in-house. Using 3rd-party FPGA design services can be a better choice.

* The company used to perform FPGA design in-house, but now it needs more resources. In this case using FPGA design services is also good solution.

Outsourcing models

The system integrator ordering FPGA design services must ensure that there are means of controlling quality. There are several business models that are acceptable when usign third-party FPGA design services:

1) Based on requirements. The system integrator defines written requirements that must be fulfilled by the service provider. The FPGA design services provider writes all the necessary test environments and behavioral models, that are included in delivery. During the process of delivery, the system integrator checks that all the requirements has been met.

2) Based on testbench. The system integrator provides some requrements and a testbench (or behavioral model). The FPGA design services provider has to write synthesizable Verilog/VHDL code corresponding to this testbench. This model can be controlled more easily, but it requires that the task of writing a functional (behavioral) model is performed by the integrator, not by the FPGA design service provider.

3) Based on man-hours. The system integrator "rents" some engineer working time from the service provider and pays according to the number of man-hours used. This FPGA design services model implies the tightiest integration between customer's project manager and service provider's engineers.

About the Author

The author has many year experience in providing FPGA design services.

If you are interested in outsourcing some FPGA design tasks, you can use this link: FPGA design services.