A programmable silicon fabric which will provide SOCs with flexibility without the power and density penalties of FPGA, has been produced by a UK start-up called Silicon Basis.
"It's a new FPGA architecture based on timesharing LUTs (Look-Up Table) a 1990s innovation by the University of California at Berkeley", Robert Beat, founder of Silicon Basis, told Electronics Weekly, "it's a circuit technique which produces low voltage swing logic."
The idea of Silicon Basis is not to enter the programmable logic market but to enter markets where the SOCs need a degree of flexibility to cope with multiple standards.
The first such market it intends to enter is the market for digital TV demodulator ICs used in set-top boxes, TVs, video recorders and PCs.
"We hope to get to the position where we can sell a demodulator chip to a TV company that can cover every standard worldwide", said Beat.
Asked when, beat replied: "If all goes well by the end of next year." Asked how he would get the required IP to build the chip, Beat replied: "We can pick up the IP for a reasonable amount, or we can offer a royalty instead of paying up-front. But we'll be developing some of the algorithms ourselves."
Beat, a former Element 14, Lattice Semiconductor and STMicroelectronics guy, has been putting his own money into the backing of Silicon Basis. The company has also had a SWRDA (South-West Regional Development Agency) grant and is looking for £1m to prove the technology, and a further £2-3m to get to the first production chips.
See also: Start-up develops FPGA technology for wireless
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