Tekmos offers customers the ability to have their ASIC or customer specific designs created and manufactured in the United States. This is typically important for companies that require ITAR compliance in their market.
The ability to design a unique customer specific part can provide competitive advantages and exceptional protection of confidential intellectual property.
Tekmos performs all design work in our Austin, Texas technology lab.
We can then have masks created, wafers fabricated and assembled with our partners in their US facilities. Tekmos then tests every part in our Austin test facility before shipment to customers. A customer specific design is essential when the application requires functions that are not readily available from standard products or when IP must be protected under the ITAR compliance rules.
Tekmos can build a wide range of devices including microprocessors, digital, analog, extended voltage ranges and supports extended temperature from -55ºC to as high as 250ºC. Our engineers are very skilled at including existing IP already developed to provide a very fast lead-time for prototypes and production units.
An FPGA conversion consists of implementing an FPGA based design in an ASIC. There can be multiple reasons for doing this, such as reliability, power dissipation, or obsolescence. But the main reason is cost. ASICs will typically cost much less than an FPGA.
ASICs also have a NRE associated with them. So to realize any cost savings, the ASIC volume must be high enough so that the cumulative unit cost savings exceeds the NRE charges.
There is a time value of money. In order to justify an FPGA conversion, the volume should be high enough so that the breakeven point occurs within 6 to 9 months. Here is an example. Assume that the FPGA costs $40 each, and the ASIC costs $5 each. That is a savings of $35 per part. A typical FPGA to ASIC NRE will be on the order of $49,000. That puts the breakeven point at 1400 units. The conversion is economically justified with a 2,000 unit annual volume. The breakeven volume changes with the technology used in the ASIC, the cost of the FPGA, and the package type.
The breakeven point has also changed with time. Back in the mid-90s, the breakeven point was frequently below 1000 units. At the time, there were a number of companies providing FPGA conversion services. Companies such as AMIS, Chip Express, and Orbit Semiconductor. Many of the Japanese companies also offered the service, including NEC, Toshiba, KLSI, and Fujitsu. The FPGA companies successfully fought back by a combination of using more advanced technology nodes, and including large amounts of RAM. The presence of the RAM prevented the ASIC companies from offering the same circuit while using an older technology. The increased use of lower supply voltages also worked against the ASIC companies, since their older technologies did not operate as well when using reduced supplies. By 2005, the FPGA conversion business was gone, along with most of the ASIC suppliers.
Semiconductors are a highly dynamic business, and by 2012, the economics of FPGA conversion had changed again. The mask costs have dropped, and those fabs that allow Multi-Level Masks (MLMs) have seen the mask cost drop by another 75%. The power supplies have stabilized between 1 and 1.2 volts. And while the FPGA technologies can provide more RAM, many applications do not need the extra RAM. As a result, FPGA conversion breakeven points have dropped to the point where conversions are again economical at the 1000 to 2000 unit range.
In life, there is constant, ongoing challenge. These challenges can take many forms. We see examples of this in nature, with the frenetic competitive energy of an ecosystem, bubbling with all forms of life in constant struggle. Or we can find examples in the daily lives of ordinary people, tasking themselves with reasons to strive. For some, these tasks may be to simply work to provide for basic needs. For others, they may find the challenges of life filled with personal objectives, such as improving oneself with knowledge, or pushing themselves to improve a specific physical ability. Whatever the challenge or goal is, there seems to be one constant to make that goal a reality. That is the drive and determination to stay on a task, to see the objective before you, and to move toward that objective with fierce determination. However lowly or lofty the goal, and whether rushing forward or stumbling and plodding, the march must not stop. It is the persistence itself which often wins the day. And as Jim Rohn points out so simply, discipline is the glue that pulls the goal together with the achievement.
A business is no different, or any system within that business. To set the goal, then to make the goal real can only be done with the discipline of effort. When a process is evaluated, what is truly being observed, what is truly being measured, is the simple day to day discipline needed to reach the goal of that process. At Tekmos, we recently went through our BSI Quality surveillance assessment, to verify that our Quality Management System was functioning as represented. We found that indeed, our processes and procedures were functioning as they should. But the real achievement was the opportunity to see that the discipline, the bridge if you will, was in place and moving toward our goals. Our goals are customer driven. And it is good to see that at Tekmos, we have a sturdy, though well-traveled bridge, to bring our customers goals to full achievement.
The San Marcos river is a spring fed river that starts in downtown San Marcos. The water is cold and clear. A Texas experience is to get an inner tube and float down the river for a mile. At that point, there was an old dam on the river that the city turned into three spillways and created a water park adjacent to the Rio Vista city park. It is perfect for a company outing.
We planned ahead, and some of us arrived early to reserve park space, and erect our tent. The tent came in handy, because it rained for an hour right after we set it up. Leaving behind a cook, the rest of us went to the drop-off point, rented tubes, and floated down the river. The rain had stopped, so it was quite nice on the river. The rain had also kept others away, so the river was not crowded. When we reached the water park, we caught a shuttle back upstream and did it again.
Spending two hours floating down a river while stuck in an inner tube is actually tiring. Planning ahead, we had set up a lunch with hamburgers, hot dogs, fries, macaroni and cheese, chips, dips, and brownies. With a menu like that, there was no problem in getting everyone off the river and over to the tent.
We ate until no one could walk. Or swim. Then we folded the tent, and called it a day. We did not get any river pictures, but we did get one of lunch.
When trying to pin down a precise meaning for the term IoT (Internet of Things), it quickly becomes clear that the acronym has many meanings. This article will partially answer the question. At first, IoT meant things that communicate over the internet. But it was about things, not people reading materials that were designed to be read or listened to over the internet. The term has evolved to mean anything that is connected to the internet. It has seen usage to include any sophisticated electronic device, connected to the internet or not. I personally think this later, all-encompassing meaning renders the term useless. The most useful meaning, although not precise, may be to denote the wide range of electronics that communicate over the internet.
Some terminology that can be useful is labeling sub-groups of IoT products. The first is the CIoT, The Consumer Internet of Things. This is the area where everyday people directly interface with IoT products. It includes all the home products, such as control of home lighting, heating, safety, and monitoring. The CIoT also includes wearables, such as monitoring one's vital signs, tracking exercise, a device to locate car keys, and watching a personalized TV attached to one's glasses. It includes answering one's door remotely, monitoring children and pets, and lighting systems and sound systems.
Another sub-group is the MIoT, the Machine Internet of Things. This term usually refers to older remote control of machines, such as oil wells, monitoring and controlling traffic, signaling trains and rail switching. It is primarily using the internet to communicate between machines that were previously direct wired or connected with dedicated rf links.
Another sub-group is the IIot, the Industrial Internet of Things. This usually refers to industrial applications such as precision control of lathes, industrial robots, process monitoring, process control, industrial data analytics, employee monitoring, plant security, and employee safety. Yet another sub-group is the MIoT, the Mobile Internet of Things, primarily related to vehicles, which may not actually use the internet. Often, some type of rf link is used since data must travel between mobile devices. It includes self-driving cars and trucks. It can include large engine control and sensor communications that may not actually use the internet, such as display of tire pressure while the vehicle is moving. It includes many on board communications systems such as DVD players, radios and on board phone systems. It includes driver warning systems such as drifting out of lane warning and adaptive cruise control.
Still another sub-group is MIot the Medical Internet of Things which includes medical devices like the remote monitoring of a patient's heart, home measurement of sleep disorders, the control of diffusion pumps, and the pendant used when a person needs to summon medical assistance when alone.
We use cookies to improve your experience on our website. By browsing this website, you agree to our use of cookies. Read more about our Privacy Policy.
