The technical and business climates for creating a new FPGA startup company are becoming more and more harsh, yet stock markets are recovering, FPGA market revenue is growing, and the number of FPGA design starts are now dwarfing ASIC design starts at up to 50:1. Can a new entry into the FPGA world succeed in this potentially lucrative, yet challenging environment?
Chip design at 65nm is tremendously difficult for digital let alone the analog design of I/Os and PLLs, heterogeneous blocks provide oodles of flexibility and constraints on software, and yet a simple RTL-compiler design flow must prevail. On top of this, most of the worldwide patents, revenue, and markets are already locked up among a few giants. The challenge for creating a new FPGA startup is certainly there!
Enter the fray: new FPGA startup companies, both real and proposed. Smaller, less entrenched, more nimble companies show promise. Technology history is full of events where smaller companies have grown to compete against larger players: AMD v Intel, Compaq/DEC/Dell v IBM, and even Xilinx v LSI Logic. New startups offer new technology, new processes, new software, new chips, and new ways of doing business. What does it take to compete in the FPGA environment? What is the right startup model for a new FPGA company? Can it be done in the garage out back, or should the development be outsourced? Will it take really deep financial pockets to compete, or can it be done with investor funds and a careful patent portfolio?
The new companies plan to succeed... will they earn a seat at the table with the existing titans? Or will they do even better and supplant them?
Join in on this panel session to hear leading experts from industry and academia present their cases, producing both technical and business arguments of why (or why not) a new FPGA startup company can succeed in the current environment.