The programmable logic industry needs to change to a model where customers, rather than technology, drive product development, according to Moshe Gavrielov, the new CEO and president of Xilinx opening the 6th Globalpress Electronics Summit in San Francisco today.

“There’s been a 40 per cent decline in the last four years in design starts for ASSP/Asic," said Gavrielov, “so why isn’t the percentage of programmable solutions growing?”

“Actually we’re at a turning point because programmable solutions have been technology driven and not defined by customer requirements," said Gavrielov, “customers use programmables for a limited number of applications like glue-gobbling and peripheral functions. Now programmables are becoming central to the system.”

The programmable market is worth $4bn and is estimated to be worth $5bn in 2011, but the ‘opportunity’ market for programmable devices is $14bn, said Gavrielov.

“We in the programmable industry must look at the market opportunities and then decide where we are going," said Gavrielov.

He saw an opportunity for programmable devices in the fact that US venture capitalists are becoming reluctant to invest in fabless chip companies when it costs $50m to develop an ASSP.