FPGA Comparison

Formerly, FPGAs (Field-programmable Gate Array) lagged behind than their rigid ASIC (Application-specific integrated circuit) peers in terms of operational speed, energy efficiency and overall functionality. It was demonstrated by an older research that designs executed on FPGAs require on an average 40 times as much area, pull 12 times as much dynamic power, and achieve one third the speed of resembling ASIC executions. In the modern days, FPGAs like Virtex-7 from Xilinx or Stratix 5 from Altera have taken place to contend with resembling ASIC and ASSP solutions by providing notably minimized power, extended speed, and decreased cost of materials, least execution real-estate and expanded likelihood for re-configuration 'on-the-fly'. A design can now be attained using just one FPGA where 6-10 ASIC may have been used in the same design in the past.

Conveniences of FPGAs comprise the facility to reprogram in the area to fix bugs, and can comprise a briefer time for marketing and lesser non-recurring engineering expenses. A moderate road can be taken by the vendors by developing their hardware on common FPGAs, but manufacture their ultimate version as an ASIC. As a result of this, it cannot be modified any longer after the design has been implemented.