combined with the predictions of MRFR and FrostSullivan, the global FPGA market size may exceed US$12.5 billion by 2025, achieving a compound growth rate of 16.4% from 2021 to 2025. The growth of China's FPGA market is higher than the world level. It is expected that China's FPGA market will increase from RMB 16 billion in 2021 to RMB 50 billion in 2025, with a compound growth rate of approximately 25%.
So what are the global FPGA industry trends in 2022? In what aspects will domestic FPGA companies strive to catch up from behind? " International Electronic Business Information " combines the public information and representative speeches of several domestic FPGA manufacturers to peek into the path of domestic FPGA's advancement.
Analysis of the pros and cons of the FPGA industry at home and abroad
Because the world's first FPGA chip was invented by Xilinx in 1985, FPGA is undoubtedly an "imported technology" for the Chinese market. As a result, the overseas FPGA industry has absolute advantages in terms of development history, technology research and development, ecological construction, intellectual property rights, and supply chain relationships.
(1) Over time, the overseas FPGA industry has experienced three stages: birth, growth, and explosion, while the Chinese FPGA industry is in the second stage of rapid growth.
1. Overseas FPGA industry development stage:
1.0 stage "budding" (1980s to 1990s). As early as the 1970s, different companies launched their own PLD devices (Programmable Logic Device, programmable logic device). These devices are based on programmable or array structures, using antifuses and EPROM, and are very complicated to program. Until 1985, Xilinx released the first FPGA device (Field-programmable gate array, field programmable logic gate array) - XC2064, which made an epoch-making use of LUT structured macro cells and easily erasable SRAM structure, marking the The official birth of FPGA also laid the basic technical framework for modern FPGA devices.
It is not difficult to see that the biggest difference between FPGA and PLD is whether they can be "field programmable" - this is also the biggest feature of FPGA chips. Whether it is CPU, GPU, DSP, Memory or various ASIC chips , after the chip is manufactured, the function of the chip has been fixed, and users cannot make any modifications to its hardware functions. After the FPGA chip is manufactured, its functions are not fixed. Users can use dedicated EDA software to functionally configure the FPGA chip with their own designed circuit according to their actual needs, thereby converting the blank FPGA chip into an FPGA chip with specific functions. Integrated circuit chip. As a result, highly customizable FPGAs are called “universal chips.”
2.0 stage "growth" (from the 1990s to around 2015). During this period, overseas FPGA suppliers increased significantly, FPGA technology became mature, logic scale and packaging technology improved significantly, unit logic resource cost decreased significantly, industry scale continued to improve, and "flexible design", "short time to market" and "suitable" "Innovation" has become the skill label of FPGA devices.
3.0 stage "outbreak" (2016 to present). In the context of the large-scale application of cloud computing and , starting in 2016, FPGA accelerators have been deployed on servers of Microsoft Azure, Amazon AWS , Alibaba Cloud for computing acceleration. In the future, the requirements for chip performance in data centers will further increase, and more data centers will adopt FPGA chip solutions, which will increase the demand and value of FPGA chips.
Technically, overseas FPGA products have entered the SoC FPGA era and are developing towards more advanced processes, higher-speed circuit structures, and complex heterogeneous SoC systems. Specifically, the SoC FPGA chip integrates important hardware resources such as high-performance hard-core CPU, memory controller , high-bandwidth bus, and high-speed transceiver. At the same time, its own logic unit can also run very high frequencies, meeting the needs of the new
Xingxing large data volume applications require high speed, high computing power, and high bandwidth, which combines the advantages of ASIC and FPGA. (Figure 1)
2. The development stage of China’s local FPGA industry:
1. 0 era “from scratch” (2005-2016). In 2005, Yagro Technology, China's first local company specializing in forward research and development of FPGA products, was established. At that time, FPGA manufacturers in the local market only focused on the chip itself, while application manufacturers concentrated on application solutions.In view of this, Yagero Technology defines itself as somewhere between the two. It is not only proficient in product technology, but also focuses on solution provision and customer design services. This has gradually become the FPGA development path of Chinese characteristics .
Until 2010, a new batch of Chinese FPGA chip companies began to grow rapidly. The number of domestic FPGA manufacturers has shown explosive growth, and there are companies such as Anlu Technology , Zhiduojing, Unisoc, Boweishi, Gowin Semiconductor, Shenwei Technology, Aogexin Electronics, etc. that focus on FPGA hardware research and development and software support. Professional manufacturers of services. (Table 1)
2. 0 era is “from having to having more, from more to better” (2017-2025). During this period, the rapid development of 5G communications, big data, cloud computing, artificial intelligence , automotive electronics and other fields have given FPGA chips an opportunity to show their talents. Coupled with the U.S. technology blockade, local terminal manufacturers have seen the importance of chip independence, and the craze for domestic substitution continues unabated. There is also a wave of shortages and price increases for two consecutive years from 2020 to 2021 under the epidemic, and domestic substitution by FPGA manufacturers comes at the right time.
3.0 era "from good to strong" (after 2025). By then, domestic FPGA manufacturers will continue to deepen their efforts, not only opening up the situation in the mid-to-low-end market, but also sprinting towards the high-end market, developing a new generation of high-performance FPGA for emerging applications, giving full play to their advantages of closeness to the market and flexible service, forming a brand reputation, and then focusing on Shaping the competitive landscape of FPGA.
(2) In terms of technical level, the process and overseas advanced levels are more than two generations apart.
It is well known in the industry that since the advent of FPGA in 1985, the capacity of FPGA has increased by more than 10,000 times, the speed has increased by more than 100 times, and the price and power consumption have decreased by more than 1,000 times.
From a process perspective, leading overseas companies have achieved mass production of 7nm advanced process FPGA chips. Taking the giants as an example, Xilinx ships 7nm Versal, and Intel (Altera) ships 10nm Agilex. Among them, the Versal series only has SoC FPGA, and the Agilex series has two series: traditional logic FPGA and SoC FPGA. Domestic FPGA manufacturers account for the largest proportion of traditional logic FPGA series, and the mass-produced chips are mainly 55nm and 40nm. In recent years, some manufacturers have successively developed or shipped 28nm devices, such as Unisoc, GOWIN Semiconductor, Anlu Technology, Smart Polycrystalline, etc. Fudan Microelectronics is developing 14nm devices.
In terms of SoC FPGA, leading overseas companies have been able to ship large quantities. For example, the proportion used by Xilinx 28nm SoC Zynq series has increased year by year. According to 2020 statistics, it has accounted for 30% of Xilinx's total shipments. Domestic devices are basically 40nm or 55nm or above process products, and their performance and power consumption are relatively backward.
In terms of product layout, the logical scale of high-end products of leading overseas companies can reach 3KK. However, the current mass-produced products of domestic FPGA are still mainly chips with logic scale of 100K and below, and the sales volume and amount of mid-to-high-end products are still small. It should be pointed out that FPGA is an industry that "emphasizes both software and hardware". On the one hand, FPGA manufacturers must base on the logic scale and performance of the hardware, on the other hand, they must also base on supporting development software and provide dedicated EDA software to configure the chip. Taking each company's dedicated EDA software as an example, "independent research and development" of
is the first threshold. The mainstream FPGA-specific EDA software on the market today is developed based on its own FPGA development software technology research and engineering practice experience, and has completely independent intellectual property rights. Such as overseas Xilinx's Vivado, Intel's QuartusII, Lattice's Diamond, etc., as well as local Unisoc's Pango Design Suite, Anlu Technology's TangDynasty, etc. Secondly, in terms of user experience, overseas dedicated EDA software takes longer to develop, and the software development team invests more. The software functions, humanized design, etc. are relatively mature, and the platform resources are richer. This requires local FPGA manufacturers to realize the importance of software tool autonomy and gradually increase investment to create a simple and efficient application design development environment .
Therefore, domestic FPGA has a long road ahead. Only when both software and hardware have completely independent intellectual property rights can they be truly independent.
(3) There are "two big and two small" overseas camps, and domestic players have full potential.
From the perspective of suppliers, the overseas FPGA camp has gone from hundreds of "players" in the early days to four mainstream companies today - Xilinx, Altera, Lattice, and Actel. The competitive landscape is basically stable. Interestingly, two major CPU manufacturers, Intel and AMD, acquired Altera and Xilinx in 2015 and 2020. The latter two are FPGA duopoly, with a combined market share of more than 80%. At the same time, more and more major international semiconductor manufacturers are optimistic about the prospects of FPGA and are actively planning to intensify market competition. For example, in November 2021, Renesas Electronics launched FPGA chips for the first time and announced its entry into the FPGA track with high profile.
Looking back at the domestic FPGA market, local manufacturers that started late have gradually won customer recognition in 5G new applications and other fields after more than ten years of technology accumulation. They have gained more trial and error opportunities with their unique advantages of being close to customers and flexible services. They will continue to do so in the future. In line with new downstream application scenarios and coupled with cost-effective advantages, domestic FPGAs have great potential.
In terms of capital expansion, Fudan Microelectronics, a major FPGA manufacturer, was officially listed on the Science and Technology Innovation Board in August 2021, with a surge of 800% on the first day; Anlu Technology, as the "first domestic FPGA chip stock", landed on the Science and Technology Innovation Board in November , the market value once exceeded 30 billion yuan. In addition, Chengdu Huawei is preparing for the Science and Technology Innovation Board, and Jingwei Qili also intends to seek listing... These capital attempts to provide new growth momentum for the growth of the local FPGA industry.
In the post-epidemic era, the resilient China electronics market is attracting many overseas FPGA manufacturers. They have established localized companies in the country and at the same time cooperated with local FPGA manufacturers to make the market bigger.
Generally speaking, since 2020, domestic FPGA, as a rising star in the industry, has gradually promoted FPGA, an electronic technology born abroad, in the Chinese market.
(4) intellectual property protection is an unavoidable topic in the development of domestic FPGA!
In recent years, affected by the further escalation of international trade frictions, downstream customers have increasingly stringent requirements for independent controllability of FPGA products. According to the spokesperson of Zhiduojing, when visiting customers, the first thing they do is to ask whether the product "has intellectual property risks." If the FPGA manufacturer cannot prove that it has relevant intellectual property protection, there is basically no next step. It is possible to discuss
. In view of this, Zhiduojing believes that local FPGA manufacturers need to put their independent intellectual property rights first. The premise and standard is that they cannot infringe the independent intellectual property rights of others. Secondly, they must protect their own independent intellectual property rights and build a "moat" for the enterprise; at the same time, they must Continuous innovation, and truly ensuring that every FPGA must have independent intellectual property rights + independent innovation, can we gradually eliminate customer misunderstandings or concerns. Zhang Weiping, co-founder and business development director of
Jingwei Qili Company, told "International Electronic Business News": "In my opinion, the technology itself, no matter where it comes from, is ultimately used by us. What local FPGA manufacturers need to study is how to use it. This technology translates into more Solutions that meet customer needs and have independent intellectual property rights.” According to reports, Jingwei Qili has done a lot of work on independent intellectual property rights and has gone through a very difficult period. Currently, all the company’s technologies, products, and services are based in China. R&D and development, with sufficient independent innovation strength.
According to observations, domestic FPGA manufacturers are currently very capable in protecting intellectual property rights. In terms of the number of intellectual property rights, Anlu Technology has 18 core technologies and has obtained 57 authorized patents, including 46 invention patents (as of June 30, 2021); Jingwei Qili has 50+ international patents, 200+ Invention patents and 160+ intellectual property rights have been granted; and a systematic intellectual property layout has been carried out.
(5) In the supply chain, both upstream capacity supply and downstream distribution channels must be addressed.
In terms of upstream, FPGA companies have a typical Fabless business model, focusing on the design, R&D and sales of integrated circuit chips. As for other aspects of the chip industry chain, such as manufacturing, packaging and testing, they are all completed through third-party OEM methods. . Therefore, when some wafer factories and outsourcing manufacturers experience rising wafer market prices and outsourcing processing costs due to insufficient production capacity from 2020 to 2021, global FPGA manufacturers are facing new challenges of tight upstream production capacity supply.
In this regard, overseas FPGA manufacturers have stable and large orders, and have a relatively greater say in production capacity; while some emerging domestic FPGA manufacturers may increase the difficulty of purchasing from overseas suppliers, and may even encounter extreme situations where they cannot purchase. This requires domestic FPGA manufacturers to work hard to stabilize the supply of upstream production capacity. On the downstream side of
, FPGA manufacturers focus their energy and resources on product research and development, so they generally adopt a sales model that combines distribution and direct sales, with dealers responsible for maintaining and selling some of the company's customers. In contrast, the distribution channel advantages of overseas giants are slightly more obvious than those of domestic enterprises; while the number of domestic professional dealers focusing on FPGA is relatively small, and the dealer team needs to be continuously optimized.
Anlu Technology believes that in the face of major changes in the business environment, the distribution model can effectively reduce the company's cost of maintaining small and medium-sized customers, while reducing the company's inventory risk and accounts receivable collection risk, which will help the company's business scale increase. Rapid expansion. Data from its prospectus show that the company's distribution channel revenue has surged from 29.86 million yuan in 2019 to 115 million yuan in 2020, indicating that its market strategy is to increase efforts to develop dealers and rely on expanding distribution channels to increase revenue.
As a new layout developer of FPGA, Yi Lingsi is completely open to strengthening cooperation across the industry chain. Zhang Yonghui, sales director of Yilingsi (Shenzhen) Technology Co., Ltd., said: "We don't mind working with any FPGA partners in the ecological chain. We also look forward to the participation of RISC-V, IP and other manufacturers and excellent distributors to jointly nurture FPGA "
How do domestic manufacturers carry forward FPGA?
After the above analysis, it seems that the advantages of domestic FPGA in all aspects are not outstanding. Why is the growth rate of industry scale higher than that of the world?
"International Electronics Business News" believes that the reasons are divided into subjective and objective aspects: Objectively, multiple application markets have further stimulated the market demand for FPGA chips. At the same time, the epidemic has led to unstable supply of overseas chips, causing local terminal manufacturers to provide local FPGA products. more and more Opportunities for trial and error; subjectively, local FPGA manufacturers face the gap and find new ways to find the "sweet spot" of development by taking the emerging application market as a guide. At the same time, they continue to expand the "circle of competence" and carry out differentiated development. They are not only fighting for domestic substitution. , but to use the hard power of development to solidly follow the path of innovation.
1. Recognize your own strengths and find the “sweet spot” for growth.
"Sweet spot" refers to the areas in which a company excels and specializes. At present, overseas FPGA manufacturers have built insurmountable market barriers and technical thresholds. The two major oligarchs, Xilinx and Intel (Altera), focus on high-end products, focusing on automotive electronics and data centers; Lattice targets the low-cost, low-power consumer electronics market; Actel focuses on special application markets such as military industry, aerospace, and national defense. Under these existing market structures, Chinese FPGA companies should recognize their own advantages and find the right growth track (Table 2). The first field where
started to take off was communications. Companies such as Fudan Microelectronics and Chengdu Sino Microelectronics have first-mover advantages. Companies such as GOWIN Semiconductor and Jingwei Qili are focusing on the emerging 5G communications track, and the competition is relatively fierce.
is followed by industrial applications. FPGA chips are widely used in video processing, image processing, CNC machine tools and other fields to achieve signal control and computing acceleration functions. A number of companies have emerged, such as Anlu Technology, Intelligent Polycrystalline, and Aogexin Electronics. A local FPGA manufacturer focusing on industrial applications.
In the field of consumer electronics, FPGA chips can be used in smartphones, drones, smart TVs, and AR/VR devices. At present, domestic civilian FPGA companies have replaced Lattice in some segments, and have achieved good market reputation. In addition, a number of local companies focusing on image processing and machine vision applications, such as Shenwei Technology, Yilingsi, and Feishu Technology, have also shown their talents. The field of
artificial intelligence is one of the key markets for domestic FPGA companies. Intelligent Polycrystalline, Unisoc, GOWIN Semiconductor, OGF Electronics, Jingwei Qili, and Feishu Technology all have relevant layouts.
Finally, with the development of Internet of Vehicles technology, the automotive industry will also use FPGA chips to build a more complete Internet of Vehicles and achieve smarter autonomous driving functions.Although overseas giants dominate the automotive FPGA market, in recent years there are also local manufacturers such as Gowin Semiconductor, Jingwei Qili, Yilinsi, Xun Silicon Technology and other in-depth layouts in this field, which has become a "catfish" in the market.
It is worth mentioning that data centers, as the "hot cakes" in the eyes of overseas FPGA giants, have also been "targeted" by domestic manufacturers in recent years, such as Anlu Technology, Unisoc, Gowin Semiconductor, Jingwei Qili Local companies such as , Feishu Technology and others are actively developing related competing products to keep up with industry development trends.
2. Promote the outward movement of the “circle of competence” and open up new space for growth.
"Circle of Competence" refers to the "scope of competence" of an enterprise, which can be gradually extended through methods and efforts.
● Method 1: Look at future market hot spots and make long-term strategies.
Since China’s FPGA industry development strategy is to flexibly explore FPGA R&D and applications based on changes in market segmentation needs, the strategic vision and long-term layout of the FPGA company leaders are key elements to the success or failure of the company.
Regarding “market segments that are more promising in the future,” several local FPGA manufacturers interviewed unanimously said, “Looking at future market hot spots is a long-term strategy that needs to be matched with its own resources. On the one hand, it is necessary to deeply cultivate the existing stock. market, consolidate existing competitive advantages, and at the same time continue to explore emerging markets and strive for more blooms in the future."
Jingwei Qili Zhang Weiping emphasized that the company focuses on the existing market and carries out different application explorations. For example, automotive electronics must be the development trend of the semiconductor industry in the future, and it is also a growth point for the FPGA industry. As for the many market segments in the future, Jingwei Qili will continue to investigate and innovate various applications to plan different products.
According to Yi Lingsi and Zhang Yonghui, there are three hot markets: dramatic applications (such as machine vision and server ), low-latency applications (such as industrial control, autonomous driving), and video and audio markets (such as display output , AI recognition).
● Method 2: Continue to increase research and development of FPGA software and hardware.
From a technical perspective, the future development trend of FPGA technology has five aspects: ① high density, high speed, high frequency band, high confidentiality; ② low voltage, low power consumption, low cost, low price; ③ IP soft/hard core complex application and system integration; ④ dynamic reconfiguration and monolithic cluster; ⑤ closely combined with application needs and diversified development. Therefore, domestic FPGA manufacturers must make large initial investments and continue to increase FPGA software and hardware research and development. According to prospectus data, Anlu Technology and Ziguang Tongchuang’s cumulative R&D investment accounted for more than 50% from 2018 to 2020, which is higher than the level of other chip industries. Although
has invested a lot, the actual return may not be proportional. Especially in the past three years, leading overseas manufacturers such as Xilinx and Lattice have had gross profit margins close to 60%, while the gross profit margins of local companies have been around 30%, and the gap remains.
Despite this, the investment intensity of domestic FPGA manufacturers has increased instead of falling. The most direct way is to go public and raise funds. Anlu Technology, which successfully landed on the Science and Technology Innovation Board in November 2021, said: "Financing was very difficult in the past, especially before 2017. After the IPO fundraising in 2021 is completed, we are confident to compete with the international market, at least in terms of the efficiency of the use of funds. We will maintain a high level of competition."
In addition to listing financing, domestic FPGA companies can also inject "money capabilities" into continued technology research and development through state capital support, intra-industry mergers and acquisitions, corporate financing, etc. Zhiduojing believes that as companies grow in the future, events such as listings, acquisitions, and mergers will become more frequent. This is the only way for the rise of local industries.
● Method 3: Cultivate high-end FPGA talents.
FPGA requires close cooperation between software and hardware to truly exert its performance, and there is a high demand for high-quality R&D personnel.
recommends starting from four levels in terms of talent training: First, establish a complete talent training and reserve system within the enterprise, implement an effective talent incentive mechanism, and form a strong innovative cultural atmosphere.The second is to strengthen the cultivation of domestic FPGA professionals and encourage enterprises to collaborate with universities and research institutes to build educational practice platforms; the third is to vigorously introduce overseas high-level talent teams; the fourth is to make full use of the huge domestic market advantages to attract overseas companies to establish joint ventures , encourage and support joint ventures to cultivate talent teams.
● Method 4: FPGA technology is a master, but it requires patience and perseverance.
"In the FPGA industry, one is both an adventurer and an ascetic." This is the sentiment of many FPGA industry players - they have to travel up and down the industrial chain to grab production capacity and provide services; they also have to immerse themselves in research and development and become a person who can stand on the bench and endure loneliness.
In this regard, domestic FPGA companies have formulated corporate development strategies at various stages and are growing steadily step by step.
Taking Jingwei Qili as an example, the company's development is divided into three stages: accumulation, rapid development, and entering the high-end market. The period from 2005 to 2016 is the accumulation stage, when the company accumulates core patents, mass-produces small and medium-sized M series and R series products, launches EDA software tools, introduces products to the market, and establishes a core R&D team; 2017-2020 is the rapid development stage, when the company Mass production of small and medium-sized H series products to improve EDA software engineering With high performance, the company introduces advanced hardware technology, focuses on breaking through the consumer market, and has shipped more than 10 million pieces in total. From 2021 to 2023, it will enter the high-end market stage. The company will mass-produce mid-to-high-end P series products to create high-end heterogeneous programmable computing. The platform laid the technical foundation, expanded the team to hundreds of people, achieved rapid profit growth, and achieved an IPO.
There is no coincidence in writing. Since its inception, Yilingsi has been divided into three strategies: first, to complete a technological breakthrough from zero to one; second, to find the right track, adhere to long-term concepts, and achieve sustainable development; third, to improve long-term competitiveness and Match the development of the market and grow together with customers. Anlu Technology divides its future plans into three directions: process advancement to three-dimensional FINFET technology, research and development of new FPSoC products, and more flexible development and technology reserve funds.
In summary, domestic FPGA manufacturers have developed an industrial "awareness" of patience and perseverance, and continue to be down-to-earth and practice hard. Of course, they will not forget to look globally, have the confidence and ambition to enter the global market, and are always ready...
This article is an article in the February 2022 issue of "International Electronic Business News". All rights reserved. Reproduction is prohibited. Free magazine subscription application click here
