ST, Xilinx to launch embedded FPGA cores in early 2005, says analyst

Peter Clarke and Colin Holland, EE Times
(10/19/2004 6:49 AM EDT)

LONDON — STMicroelectronics and partners IBM Microelectronics and Xilinx Inc. are expected to launch programmable logic cores for the ASIC and system-on-chip markets within the next six months.
Bryan Lewis, a senior analyst at Gartner Dataquest, disclosed the plan in a keynote speech Monday (Oct. 18) at the EDA Tech Forum organized by Mentor Graphics Corp. in San Jose, Calif. "In Q1 next year, a product will be out from a collaboration between IBM and Xilinx, and STMicroelectronics is also expected to have a core out by the end of the year which has been developed from scratch," Lewis said.

Lewis said ST has had 200 engineers working on its FPGA project in India, adding that embedded FPGA architecture design had been "done from scratch." In addition, ST will reveal a number of licencees when the company formally announces the architecture later this year, Lewis said.

Until now, Lewis said, FPGA cores for embedding in ASICs and SOCs had been discussed but not accepted because they proved too costly in silicon die area.

ST's entry into programmable logic has been a long time coming, with the company revealing the existence of an FPGA development project in India several years ago.

ST completed the acquisition of Waferscale Integration Inc. in September 2000 but ran that company as a Silicon Valley business unit within its Memory Products Group. At around that time, ST denied that it would try to take on the well-established Xilinx and Altera Corp. in the stand-alone programmable logic device market.