Architectural and physical design challenges for one-million gate FPGAs and beyond

ABSTRACT

Process technology advances tell us that the one-million gate Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) will soon be here, and larger devices shortly after that. We feel that current architectures will not estend directly to this scale because: they do not handle routing delays effectively; they require excessive compile/place/route times; and because they do not exploit new opportunities are presented by the increase in available transistors and wiring. In this paper we describe several challenges that will need to be solved for these large-scale FPGAs to realize their full potential.

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INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  B. Hardware
  B.7 INTEGRATED CIRCUITS
      B.7.1 Types and Design Styles
          Subjects: Gate arrays

Additional Classification:
  B. Hardware
  B.7 INTEGRATED CIRCUITS
      B.7.1 Types and Design Styles
          Subjects: Advanced technologies
      B.7.2 Design Aids
          Subjects: Placement and routing

General Terms:
Design, Performance