FPGA’s Final Frontier
Programmable Logic at CES

It is the final and biggest frontier for field programmable gate arrays.  FPGA companies jumping into the gargantuan consumer electronics market – estimated at over 135 billion dollars this year in the US alone – may find it’s like swimming from a fishbowl into the ocean.  Although the programmable logic pecking order may have been well established back in the home aquarium, jumping out into the big sea changes the rules dramatically. 

In this new domain, where trade shows like the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) count their attendees with six digits despite restricting registration to only “industry insiders” -  the stakes are higher and the priorities are different than in the well-worn telecommunications infrastructure market where FPGAs cut their teeth.  Unfamiliar and formidable predators stalk this new “ecosystem” with a vengeance, protecting well-established turf with deeply-entrenched technology.  Unlike the ocean, however, the consumer electronics industry exists in a state of constant chaos – where the only rule is rapid change.  Our recent visit to CES convinced us that FPGAs are infiltrating this space more than ever.  Despite the fact that there were no FPGA company booths at this year’s CES, the presence of programmable logic could be felt in the suites, in the wings, and most definitely in the cutting-edge consumer products on display. [more]