This year at Sensors Converge 2024, Gowin Semiconductor announced a new FPGA, the GW5AT-15, with hard-core MIPI interfaces built into the device.
EETech’s director of engineering, Dale Wilson (left), met with Gowin CEO Jason Zhu at Sensors Converge 2024 to learn more about the company’s newest FPGA.
As electronic devices shrink in size and grow in performance, designers must negotiate a tradeoff between processor area and capabilities. GW5AT-15, the newest addition to Gowin’s Arora V SRAM-based FPGAs, can help designers transfer data quickly and efficiently without resorting to bulky devices.
To learn more about the new FPGA, All About Circuits met Jason Zhu, CEO of Gowin Semiconductor, at Sensors Converge to learn about the new FPGA’s place in high-speed interfaces.
PHYs Come in Small Packages
The GW5AT-15 packs 15 120-logic elements into the device with a maximum of 53 GPIOs, 118 Kb of shadow SRAM, and 630 Kb of block SRAM. Two on-chip PLLs, various clock sources, and an ADC support more applications, allowing the device to be used in various applications.
Where the GW5AT-15 shines is its serializer-deserializer (SerDes) performance. Instead of relying on soft-core PHYs, the GW5AT-15 includes multiple PHYs in hardware to support data-heavy applications. The FPGA includes a three-lane MIPI C-PHY (5.75 Gbps/lane), four-lane PCIe 3.0, and a four-lane MIPI D-PHY (2.5 Gbps/lane) for high-speed applications. An onboard USB 3.x and 2.x PHYs further extend the utility of the devices.
The MIPI C-PHY eye diagram highlights the performance increase using a hard-core PHY, allowing designers to dedicate more logic cells to their own needs.
The included PHYs allow the device to be used in high-speed interfaces such as automotive infotainment displays, small gaming devices, or camera interfaces. Thanks to its small package size of only 4.8 mm × 5.3 mm, the device can be integrated in extremely small environments. Gowin even demonstrated the device acting as an in-cable USB to audio jack converter at Sensors Converge, further highlighting the utility of a small, high-performance FPGA.
Breaking the FPGA Mold
If you ask engineers what first comes to mind when they think of FPGAs, many will describe a large, high-performance chip that can speed up DSP, data transfer, or many other computing applications. While it is true that FPGAs are an integral part of many modern high-performance computing systems, Gowin Semiconductor believes that small, power-efficient FPGAs with fewer I/Os and better signal interfaces could be useful to modern engineers.
The GW5AT-15’s compact nature allows it to be incorporated into more designs.
Gowin also claims its new FPGAs can benefit designers amid the shift from domain to zonal architectures in automotive applications. In addition to its performance specs, Gowin FPGAs are AEC-Q100 and functional safety qualified to support the accelerated design cycle in automotive and EV designs. They can be used with the Gowin EDA tool to further speed up the design process.
“We can help automotive manufacturers catch up with the industry leaders,” Zhu said.
Integrating FPGAs Everywhere
Not every designer needs a cutting-edge logic device. Much like how 8-bit MCUs still see use in today’s market despite the release of their 32-bit counterparts, small, efficient, and lower-cost FPGAs will always be in demand. This is the niche that Gowin hopes to address with its latest FPGA release. The GW5AT-15 provides high-performance features without resorting to large chips.
“We stand on the shoulders of the giants in the FPGA industry, but continue to look to bring new ideas to the industry,” Zhu said.
All images used courtesy of Gowin Semiconductor.
