7.1   TECHNOLOGY PUSH OR MARKET PULL?

Dramatic changes in the semiconductor industry have been a consequence of both “technology push” and “market pull.” These processes usually work in tandem and result in new products and business ventures. New methods and tools often develop as a by-product of scientific research in an underlying technology. Frequently, the engineer or scientist has to convince potential users of the value and benefit of the new technology. The phenomenon is referred to as technology push as opposed to market pull, where the need for a product or tool is commonly understood, but no widely accepted solution currently exists.

Does the development of the field-programmable gate array (FPGA) fit either categorization? In the mid-1980s, the FPGA emerged as a novel solution offering quick design and reduced time-to-market in the highly competitive arena of custom-designed chips for high-performance electronic systems. It increased the productivity of the designer, particularly for system prototyping with the aid of accurate performance simulation. The advent of the FPGA was recognized as a means of shortening the product development time for complex-and high-performance digital systems, such as those used in telecommunication applications, specialized computer peripheral equipment, industrial instrumentation, and control systems, along with military and aerospace applications where space and power are at a premium.

The concepts of reprogrammability were formulated in the 1960s [Minnick64] but ineffectual until the 1980s, which saw the arrival of silicon complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) technology and fabrication with adequate density and multilayer metalization. Higher density components reduced the cost of printed-circuit design and manufacture, assembly, and test, as well as overall size. The FPGA entered as an almost universal digital building block enabling faster prototyping, thereby solving a commercial problem of shortening the time to market for complex electronic systems in a sphere of intense worldwide competition and rapid product obsolescence.