Conversion start-up keys on Altera

Electronic News, Jan 26, 1998

Santa Clara, Calif.--ASIC conversion start-up Clear Logic recently introduced conversion technology that will enable designers of Altera field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) to convert to Clear Logic's proprietary laser-configured ASICs (LASICs). Last October, Clear Logic said it would be making its move into the conversion market, claiming it wanted to capitalize on the "weakness" of both ASICs and FPGAs (EN, Oct. 13, 1997).

ASICs, with long lead times and high NREs, and FPGAs are too costly and require a lot of power, according to Al Huggins, president and CEO of Clear Logic. Mr. Huggins said the company wants to offer its technology without charging an NRE (non-recurring engineering) and it wants to cut production time to three or four weeks while eliminating redesign.

"We look more like a standard product from an ordering perspective," said Mr. Huggins. "Typical lead times for ASICs are three months. With an FPGA it is faster but the cost can be tremendous. We are converting ASICs in less than a month without an NRE and without the hassle of most conversion processes." Clear Logic will manufacture its wafers for the LASICs in an Integrated Device Technology (IDT) fab.

However, Clear Logic will have its work cut out with companies like Orbit Semiconductor, Chip Express and AMI already established in the conversion market, as well as programmable logic vendor Xilinx which has also established its own conversion business unit and recently rolled out a new conversion pro- cess for higher density devices (EN, Oct. 20, 1997).

Mr. Huggins said that unlike some conversion houses that will try and fit any and all FPGA designs into a single generic architecture, Clear Logic's ASICs are designed only for Altera's Flex 8000 family. Each design is tailored to fit around an Altera FPGA. This will enable the company to port the bitstreams of the FPGA directly into the ASIC without having to do re-synthesis or re-simulation.

Clear Logic is currently working with various OEMs in beta sites, Mr. Huggins said. The startup plans to roll out other compatible conversion processes for the Flex 8000 family later this year. Clear Logic's technology, dubbed the ClearFire laser configuration technology, enables a designer to have a prototype of a LASIC in less than a week and permits each die on the wafer to be individually configured.

The ClearShot bitstream extraction tools are claimed to translate any Altera FPGA bitstream file into laser-configuration instructions in less than one hour, enabling volume production within one month. The company also claims to be able to achieve a 50 percent reduction in die size from an FPGA as well as consume 50 percent less power than an Altera FPGA.

"Because of our manufacturing process and the fact we never have to do redesign of the device, customers can come to us and want 423 units; well we will make them 423 units," said Mr. Huggins. "We will make money by offering to convert Altera FPGAs at a slightly cheaper price than Altera sells."