FPGA rivals continue to slug it out
1 min read
Altera and Xilinx are nothing but hyper competitive; both companies have striven over the years to out do each other – even to the level of 'spoiler' events and news releases.
So it was no surprise to see today's announcement from Xilinx that it aims to get 16nm FinFET based fpgas to market by the end of this year. The move effectively trumps Altera's February news that it will be using Intel's 14nm FinFET process for its next generation of devices.
It's an interesting development. Altera made a strategic decision to take its 14nm fpgas to Intel, having previously used TSMC exclusively. It wouldn't have made such a move without very good cause. TSMC intimated the reason was transistor performance, but claimed it offers better performance in every other category. Is this what Xilinx has determined?
Neither are decisions such as these made yesterday – both Altera and Xilinx will have been working on these plans for quite some time. In some ways, it's like a duck swimming – there's lots going on under the water.
