Patrick, man, are we passing the buck on this one (FPGA and LSI), and I have to pass it some more. My experience with ASICs has been with proprietary ones intended for just one or two customers, not semi-general purpose ones, if you could call LSI's ASICs that. I can also speak to systems design and applications, i.e. PCs to workstations to enterprise servers, and storage systems.
The one thing I did think of when I read about LSI's plans for embedding some FPGA into their ASICs is that it gives them the flexibility that microcode does. So, when customers need to change the internal workings of their LSI ASICs, they can do it at their factory or in the field, rather than requiring a new or redesigned ASIC. OTOH, LSI's ASICs may have already had microcode built into them, I don't know.
I'll put a blurb I heard this a.m. on the radio driving to work about game console sales. May affect LSI (for the good).
Tony |
