Nothing to discourage the efforts here but close to 10 companies were closed which tried to enter in FPGA market in last 10 years alone. Here is the list : TierLogic , CSwitch, Ambric, MathStar, Agate Logic, Nusym, AboundLogic (M2000)
Only one successful acquisiton.
Lattice acquired --> Silicon Blue
In the past, ST Micro tried 2 times to enter in FPGA Market, once even with the "open Source " concept - GOSPL. Intel for once for sure. Other several companies failed too.
Xilinx and Altera hold close to 90% market share in FPGA market. 90% of other efforts to enter this market have failed earlier. Mostly because, companies underestimated Software importance.
Comments
Nothing to discourage the efforts here but close to 10 companies were closed which tried to enter in FPGA market in last 10 years alone. Here is the list : TierLogic , CSwitch, Ambric, MathStar, Agate Logic, Nusym, AboundLogic (M2000)
Only one successful acquisiton. Lattice acquired --> Silicon Blue
In the past, ST Micro tried 2 times to enter in FPGA Market, once even with the "open Source " concept - GOSPL. Intel for once for sure. Other several companies failed too.
Xilinx and Altera hold close to 90% market share in FPGA market. 90% of other efforts to enter this market have failed earlier. Mostly because, companies underestimated Software importance.
Moreover, Mobile Apps industry has paid out close to $6B in last 4-5 years. The revenue of whole EDA industry is $6-8 billion USD , though annually.
Over that entry barrier is so high in programmable logic industry that , making en effort in this direction makes it less viable option.
Even the best in hardware making failed because they underestimated the software. Investor sentiment for FPGAs is so low for these obvious reasons.
Even the lattice acquisition was a small one , the VC's made no profit on it.
Exactly !! So i would say FPGA research as an academic project is a good idea but as a viable business has many challenges.