Almost as long as FPGAs have been around, they have been used to prototype ASICs, SoCs, and IPs. While initially, the only option for users was to build their own prototyping board, that quickly changed with many commercial prototyping boards becoming available from vendors large and small. Ever since, the large question for users has been, should I develop and build or buy my boards?
Now, consider the pros and cons of this “build vs. buy” debate. But before that, probably the first question to ask yourself is what do you want the FPGA-based prototype to do? Having that answer allows you to consider the right priorities and trade-offs inherent in the decision to build or not to build a board. Let’s assume you buy rather than build, which commercial solution should you purchase? Key questions to ask yourself here are:
- What is the primary use mode, HW (RTL) verification or SW validation?
- How many FPGAs per board/system are needed to handle my design (e.g. single vs. multi-FPGA)?
- How many boards will I need?
- What physical at-speed interfaces do I need?
- What is the minimum performance the FPGA board must run at?
- What is my budget?
