[HH] FPGAs price competitive with ASICs?

[Jon Evans]

I have used Spartan 3 and 6 series.  Since we're comparing commercial temp
grade parts, the XC6SLX25 [1] has about the same number of logic cells and
almost four times as much block ram.  The Artix FPGAs have more
multiplier/DSP cores, though.  Unfortunately the Artix FPGA that is
competitive spec-wise with the LX25 is not available yet (our Xilinx reps
told us next summer, probably), so Spartan 6 is still where it's at for the
low end (and by low end, I mean under $50/device in volume).

So, we could buy a significantly more expensive Zynq that has 1/4 the block
ram, or we could just use a Spartan 6 and a $5 Cortex-M4 microcontroller if
needed.  Since our applications are block ram intensive, we went with the
Spartan 6.

[1]
http://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/XC6SLX25-2FTG256C/122-1753-ND/2339839


On Thu, Dec 19, 2013 at 6:11 PM, Greg London <email at greglondon.com> wrote:

>
> digikey lists the 7010 going for $55.
> http://www.digikey.com/product-search/en?mpart=XC7Z010-1CLG225C&vendor=122
>
> What chips/families do you use?
>
>
>
> > I do, but haven't tried the Zynq. They have not been price competitive
> > when
> > compared to a discrete FPGA and microprocessor combination.
> > On Dec 19, 2013 5:48 PM, "Greg London" <email at greglondon.com> wrote:
> >
> >>
> >> Maybe I could start with a poll:
> >>
> >> How many people on the list use FPGA's for design?
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> > Nice.
> >> >
> >> > I don't know why the price is so different compared to the zedboard.
> >> > All I can guess is that avnet seems to make prototype boards
> >> > for corporate engineering companies, and they figured those buyers
> >> > could afford a markup. I think thye spent quite a long time to get
> >> > the board to work, plus dealing with the ZYNQ chip being a long time
> >> > in coming. It will be interesting to see how parallella's first
> >> > batch of consumer boards hold up in the field. January maybe?
> >> >
> >> > Has anyone worked with the zynq chip?
> >> > I've fiddled with it using the xilinx pre-built AXI slaves.
> >> > I have some home-grown axi slaves and I haven't
> >> > found a good explanation of how to hook it up
> >> > to the rest of the design.
> >> >
> >> > Greg
> >> >
> >> >> I am always amazed when I see what kid of FPGA you can get from a
> >> >> Kickstarter
> >> >> project. Parallella has a Xilinx Zyng-7000 on it and Parallella only
> >> >> costs
> >> >> $99
> >> >> (as compared to the $349 deep academic discount of a Zedboard).
> >> >>
> >> >> Now there is Logi-Bone... a Spartan 6 shield for $69? How in the name
> >> of
> >> >> Sam
> >> >> Hill are they doing that? Volume? I doubt it...
> >> >>
> >> >>
> >>
> http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1575992013/logi-fpga-development-board-for-raspberry-pi-beagl
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