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What Simtek acquired
Simtek Corporation, then known for reprogrammable nonvolatile semiconductor memories such as nvSRAM, announced the ILSI acquisition in May 2000. EE Times reported that the transaction took effect on May 10, 2000. The purchase brought ILSI’s MPGA technology and engineering capabilities into Simtek, which described the move as its first effort to expand beyond its memory roots. The acquisition terms were not disclosed.
At the time, EE Times reported that Simtek had 23 employees and $7 million in 1999 revenue; ILSI had three full-time and two part-time employees. Those are historical company figures, not current size or revenue information.
Why convert an FPGA design for production?
An FPGA can be reprogrammed, which makes it useful while a product is being developed or changed. A manufacturer may then want a fixed-function device for volume production. Simtek’s 2000 announcement said that companies often kept using relatively expensive FPGAs in production because converting a completed design to a lower-cost nonprogrammable part could itself be costly.
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- Designed for students and beginners looking to understand Digital Logic, fundamentals of FPGAs
- Features the Xilinx Artix 7 FPGA compatible with Vivado Design Suite WebPACK Edition (free download available from Xilinx)
- On board user interfaces include 16 user switches, 16 LEDs, 5 user pushbuttons, and a
- Expansion opportunities with four Pmod ports including 3 standard 12-pin Pmod ports and 1 dual
- Does NOT ship with micro USB cable
ILSI’s proposition was to reduce the engineering cost and effort of that conversion using its chip architecture and proprietary engineering tools. The trade-off is fundamental: an MPGA replacement is configured for the customer’s design rather than reprogrammed like an FPGA. The conversion therefore exchanges FPGA flexibility for the prospect of lower production-device cost; it is not simply a matter of plugging in a different vendor’s chip.
Which FPGA and PLD families could ILSI replace?
The 2000 announcement described ILSI’s MPGAs as replacements for FPGAs and other programmable logic devices from Xilinx, Altera, Actel, Lattice, and AMD. It reported the following upper capacities for the product family:
Rank #2
- Arty A7 comes in two FPGA variants: Arty A7-35T features Xilinx XC7A35TICSG324-1L. Arty A7-100T features the larger Xilinx XC7A100TCSG324-1.
- Internal clock speeds exceeding 450MHz, On-chip analog-to-digital converter (XADC), Programmable over JTAG and Quad-SPI Flash
- 256MB DDR3L with a 16-bit bus @ 667MHz, 16MB Quad-SPI Flash, USB-JTAG Programming circuitry, Powered from USB or any 7V-15V source
- 10/100 Mbps Ethernet, USB-UART Bridge
- 4 Switches, 4 Buttons, 1 Reset Button, 4 LEDs, 4 RGB LEDs, 4 Pmod connectors, shield connector
| Reported capability | Historical figure | Qualification |
|---|---|---|
| Logic capacity | Up to 100,000 logic gates | Simtek/ILSI announcement, 2000; a family maximum, not a specification for every replacement. |
| Memory | Up to 40,000 bits (40 Kbits) | Simtek/ILSI announcement, 2000; the source does not establish that every device included this capacity. |
| Input/output pins | Up to 324 | Simtek/ILSI announcement, 2000; a family maximum. |
These figures describe the reported ILSI product family, not universal limits for FPGA-to-MPGA conversion. The announcement does not establish that every source device, feature, package, or electrical behavior could be reproduced in an ILSI part. A real conversion would depend on the particular design and its requirements.
What Simtek planned to do with the business
Simtek said it would operate the acquired logic activity as a profit center alongside its memory group. The initial priority was FPGA-to-MPGA conversions; the company also planned to use the logic-design infrastructure later for standard logic products. The announcement’s reference to an FPGA market approaching $3 billion was a contemporary market estimate, not a present-day market figure.
Rank #3
- [FPGA Chip] GW2AR-18 QN88 FPGA Chip containing 20736 LUT4 logic cells and 15552 Filp-Flops.There are 2 PLL in this FPGA chip, and many DSP units supporting 18 bit x 18 bit multiplication
- [Onboard Debugger ] Sipeed Tang Nano 20K Development Board support JTAG for FPGA, USB to UART for FPGA,USB to SPI for FPGA communication, Control MS5351 generate frequency
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- [Application scenarios] Tang Nano 20K Open source Development Board supports game console emulators, drives RGB screens, multiple display outputs, 20K LUT4, RISC-V soft-core experiments.
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What the 2001 follow-up claimed about savings and timing
In January 2001, EDN reported that Simtek had combined ILSI and its MacroTech acquisition into a Simtek Integrated Logic division. Its initial focus was converting Xilinx XC4000 designs to Simtek ASIC products. For those replacements, Simtek claimed typical power use could be half that of the original FPGA, smaller packages could be customized on request, prototypes could be delivered eight weeks after approval of the design archives, and cost could be reduced by at least 50% versus the original FPGA.
These were company claims reported in 2001, not independently documented results for every conversion. The eight-week period began after design-archive approval, not when a customer first requested a quote. The 50% figure was a claimed reduction against the original FPGA; the source does not specify a universal project cost, production volume, or recurring price.
Rank #4
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EDN also described the Xilinx XC4000 source family as spanning 1,600 to 500,000 logic gates and 64 to 448 I/O pins, with 2.5 V, 3.3 V, and 5 V supplies, user-defined I/O characteristics, optional single- or dual-port embedded RAM, JTAG, and internal clock rates up to 320 MHz. Those are reported XC4000 family specifications, not proof that each Simtek replacement implemented every feature or matched every variant.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Are Simtek or ILSI replacement parts available now?
The historical announcements establish that Simtek acquired ILSI and that Simtek Integrated Logic later promoted conversions, including XC4000 replacements. They do not establish who owns those specific products now, whether the parts remain in production, or whether a distributor currently has stock or offers equivalent conversion services. No current availability should be inferred from the 2000–2001 coverage; buyers would need to verify lifecycle and supply directly with a present-day semiconductor supplier or rights holder.
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- Digilent Basys 3 Artix-7 FPGA Trainer Board: Recommended for Introductory Users
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