Some 30 years ago the gate array was flying high, enthusiastically supported by vendors such as LSI Logic and VLSI Technology, but at the same time at increasing risk of becoming an endangered species. A decade later it was practically over. Structured gate arrays persisted for a while but unless you could afford the mask costs for a standard-cell ASIC, you were no longer in the business of buying custom chips. The FPGA was now your main option.
At the leading edge the economics have certainly not improved for anyone who cannot command high volumes or operating margins. Design costs have spiralled up as well for chips at these advanced nodes, though primarily in verification, validation, and software development. The idea of democratising design with these trends in the background seems counter-intuitive. But others suggest there is demand for easier, cheaper access to custom silicon and that a growing number of design teams can justify the switch from...