Is the FPGA chip market growing rapidly?

Last Update Time: 2019-12-26 11:11:12

      The FPGA is called "universal chip". From a technical point of view, it is a programmable product that can be used repeatedly without changing the hardware composition of the chip itself. According to market changes, different functions are implemented on the same carrier. 

      It sounds beautiful, but it is very difficult to develop, because semiconductor giants like Intel and TI have tried to enter this market, but they all came back for such reasons. At present, there are only a handful of companies that can mass-produce FPGAs worldwide, and Xilinx, Altera, Lattice, and Microsemi are well-known American companies.

      An FPGA is a semi-custom circuit in the field of application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), which has advantages such as rapid product completion, modification, correction of errors in the program, and cheaper cost. Engineers can reconfigure the logic and I/O modules inside the FPGA to implement the logic they want. FPGAs also feature statically reprogrammable and dynamic in-system refactoring, allowing hardware functions to be modified programmatically like software.


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      FPGAs can perform the functions of any digital device, and even high-performance CPUs can be implemented with FPGAs. The FPGA is like a blank sheet: When power is applied, the FPGA chip reads the data in the EPROM into the on-chip programming RAM, and enters the working state after the configuration is completed. After the power is turned off, the FPGA is restored into a white chip, and the internal logic relationship disappears, so the FPGA can Repeated use. 

      Using FPGAs to develop digital circuits can significantly reduce design time, reduce the area of PCB printed circuit boards, and increase system reliability. Built-in hard CPU or soft core CPU in FPGA can realize digital logic and adapt to embedded development.

      The global FPGA market totals 5 billion US dollars. The analysts expect the global FPGA market to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 9% from 2015 to 2020. By 2020, the global FPGA market will reach 8.4 billion US dollars. At present, FPGA is in an accelerated market trend, and the growth rate is much larger than other chip markets. At the same time, the average gross profit of the FPGA industry is considerable. 

      According to market data analysis, the average gross profit of the industry is greater than 60%. The FPGA industry also needs a larger market size to attract more users. It is expected that as FPGA production increases gradually and costs are further reduced, its market share will continue to increase.

At present, the main application fields of FPGA are communication, industrial control, national defense, and consumption. One of the most interesting trends in FPGA in recent years is the continuous expansion of application fields.

      In the FPGA traditional application market, communication gradually realizes high-speed and complex protocols, while consumer electronics applications focus on low power consumption and low cost. In addition, FPGAs are widely used in medical electronics, security, video, industrial automation, voice networks, semiconductor manufacturing equipment, and home appliances. The application of FPGA in industry mainly involves four fields, namely motor control, industrial network, machine vision and robot control. Taking motor control as an example, the focus is on reducing noise, reducing vibration, and reducing EMI, while achieving higher control accuracy and lower energy consumption.

      At present, in the global market, Xilinx and Altera still have an absolute monopoly on the technology and market of FPGA. The two companies have a market share of nearly 90%, with more than 6,000 patents; the remaining market share is mainly owned by LatTIce and Microsemi, and the two patents also reach more than 3,000. In 2014, Xilinx and Altera's two companies had revenues of US$2.38 billion and US$1.93 billion, respectively. In 2014, LatTIce and Microsemi (FPGA only) revenues were US$366 million and US$275 million. The top four FPGA market leaders have almost monopolized the market share of FPGAs.

      The FPGA market is promising, but the threshold is unmatched in the chip industry. More than 60 companies around the world have spent billions of dollars to go to the top of the FPGA highland, including Intel, IBM, Texas Instruments, Motorola, Philips, Toshiba, Samsung and other industry giants, but the only successful summit Four companies in Silicon Valley, USA - Xilinx, Altera, LatTIce, Microsemi. The above four companies hold more than 9,000 patents, and the technical barriers of so many technical patents are of course unattainable.

 

If you want to know more, our website has product specifications for the FPGAs chip, you can go to ALLICDATA ELECTRONICS LIMITED to get more information