[PLUG-TALK] Field-Programmable Analog Arrays

[Keith Lofstrom]

On Sat, Feb 23, 2008 at 02:16:32AM -0800, Paul Mullen wrote:
> Bringing all the fun and excitement of desktop digital design to the
> analog world:
> 
> http://www.eetimes.com/showArticle.jhtml;?articleID=205916545
> 
>   "Rough estimates suggest there are around 3,000 analog
>   engineers in the world," said Hasler, who has been focusing
>   on the application of FPAA technology. "Compare that with
>   the number of system designers, those working in DSP, etc.;
>   even the most conservative numbers are above a million."
> 
> Really? Only 3,000? Anyone familiar the world of analog design know if
> that estimate is accurate?

They've never counted us, but the number does sound far too low.  If
you include all the power supply designers, data converter designers,
instrumentation designers, RF designers, dynamic RAM chip designers,
etc. -- everyone that works with signals that aren't ones and zeros --
I'd say the number of analog designers is closer to 50,000.  The number
of engineers that work with digital hardware is probably closer to
500,000 .  There are a lot of technicians and assembly people and
manufacturing and CAD people that I am not counting.  All in all, it
is pretty fluid; some days I am using Verilog, and other days I am
modelling individual transistors at the physics level.  My current
product ( see www.siidtech.com ) is digital outside, and sensitive
analog inside.  Does that make it digital or analog?  A crossbar
router chip family I designed a long time ago (which carried much
of the internet and much studio digital video) had digital pins, and
specially tuned analog paths inside to speed them up.  Is that an
analog or a digital chip?  In reality, a good engineer solves problems
with the tools and constraints at hand, and chooses analog or digital
solutions according to what works best.  I guess a digital-only or an
analog-only engineer would work with a smaller palatte.

BTW, my friend Steve Wetterling runs Servenger (www.servenger.com),
a local company that builds proto boards and software that work
with field programmable analog arrays.  The chips are fun, but
they can only handle a limited range of signals;  they don't cover
much of the analog map, and much of their application range can be
digitized. 

Keith

-- 
Keith Lofstrom          keithl at keithl.com         Voice (503)-520-1993
KLIC --- Keith Lofstrom Integrated Circuits --- "Your Ideas in Silicon"
Design Contracting in Bipolar and CMOS - Analog, Digital, and Scan ICs