The Relation of ASIC, FPGA, Embedded, Bio and DSP

ASIC

An ASIC (application-specific integrated circuit) is a microchip designed for a special application, such as a particular kind of transmission protocol or a hand-held computer. You might contrast it with general integrated circuits, such as the microprocessor and the random access memory chips in your PC. ASICs are used in a wide-range of applications, including auto emission control, environmental monitoring, and personal digital assistants (PDAs).

An ASIC can be pre-manufactured for a special application or it can be custom manufactured (typically using components from a "building block" library of components) for a particular customer application.

FPGAs

What is an FPGA?

The field-programmable gate array (FPGA) is a semiconductor device that can be programmed after manufacturing. Instead of being restricted to any predetermined hardware function, an FPGA allows you to program product features and functions, adapt to new standards, and reconfigure hardware for specific applications even after the product has been installed in the field—hence the name "field-programmable". You can use an FPGA to implement any logical function that an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) could perform, but the ability to update the functionality after shipping offers advantages for many applications.

Unlike previous generation FPGAs using I/Os with programmable logic and interconnects, today's FPGAs consist of various mixes of configurable embedded SRAM, high-speed transceivers, high-speed I/Os, logic blocks, and routing. Specifically, an FPGA contains programmable logic components called logic elements (LEs) and a hierarchy of reconfigurable interconnects that allow the LEs to be physically connected. You can configure LEs to perform complex combinational functions, or merely simple logic gates like AND and XOR. In most FPGAs, the logic blocks also include memory elements, which may be simple flipflops or more complete blocks of memory.

As FPGAs continue to evolve, the devices have become more integrated. Hard intellectual property (IP) blocks built into the FPGA fabric provide rich functions while lowering power and cost and freeing up logic resources for product differentiation. Newer FPGA families are being developed with hard embedded processors, transforming the devices into systems on a chip (SoC).

Compared to ASICs or ASSPs, FPGAs offer many design advantages, including: 

• Rapid prototyping
• Shorter time to market
• The ability to re-program in the field for debugging
• Lower NRE costs
• Long product life cycle to mitigate obsolescence risk

Embedded

An embedded system is some combination of computer hardware and software, either fixed in capability or programmable, that is specifically designed for a particular function. Industrial machines, automobiles, medical equipment, cameras, household appliances, airplanes, vending machines and toys (as well as the more obvious cellular phone and PDA) are among the myriad possible hosts of an embedded system. Embedded systems that are programmable are provided with programming interfaces, and embedded system programming is a specialized occupation.

Certain operating systems or language platforms are tailored for the embedded market, such as Embedded Java and Windows XP Embedded. However, some low-end consumer products use very inexpensive microprocessors and limited storage, with the application and operating system both part of a single program. The program is written permanently into the system's memory in this case, rather than being loaded into RAM (random access memory) like programs on a personal computer.

Digital Signal Processor

A Digital Signal Processor, or DSP, is a specialized microprocessor that has an architecture which is optimized for the fast operational needs of digital signal processing. A Digital Signal Processor (DSP) can process data in real time, making it ideal for applications that can’t tolerate delays. Digital signal processors take a digital signal and process it to improve the signal into clearer sound, faster data or sharper images. Digital Signal Processors use video, voice, audio, temperature or position signals that have been digitized and mathematically manipulate them. A digital signal processor is designed to perform these mathematical functions rapidly. The signals are processed so the information contained in them can be displayed or converted to another type of signal.

Types of Digital Signal Processor

There are many different kinds of programmable digital signal processors and at Future Electronics we stock many of the most common types categorized by Clock Frequency, RAM size, Data Bus Width, ROM Size, Flash size, packaging type, MMAC/MIPS/FLOPS and I/O Voltage. The parametric filters on our website can help refine your search results depending on the specifications required.

The most common sizes for RAM are 24 kB, 64 kB, 576 kB and 125 MB. We also carry digital signal processors with RAM sizes up to 1 GB. Flash sizes can range from 8 B to 1 GB, with the most common sizes being 8 B and 4 kB.

Digital Signal From Processor from Future Electronics

Future Electronics has a full selection of digital signal processors from several manufacturers suitable for programming, including audio DSP chips that can be used in DSP systems. Simply choose from the digital signal processor technical attributes below and your search results will quickly be narrowed to match your specific digital signal processor application needs.

If you have a preferred brand, we deal with several manufacturers such as Austria micro systems, Cognivue Corporation, Cypress or Zilog. You can easily refine your digital signal processor product search results by clicking your preferred programmable digital signal processor brand below from our list of manufacturers.

BIOS

The BIOS (abbreviated from Basic Input/Output System and also known as the System BIOS, ROM BIOS or PC BIOS) is the firmware used during the booting process (power-on startup) on IBM PC compatible computers. The name originates from the Basic Input/Output System used in the CP/M operating system in 1975.  The BIOS software is built into the PC, and it is the first software run by a PC when powered on. Originally pproprietary to the IBM PC, the BIOS was reverse engineered by companies looking to create compatible systems and the interface of that original system serves as a standard.

The fundamental purposes of the BIOS are to initialize and test the system hardware components, and to load a boot loader or an operating system from a mass memory device. The BIOS additionally provides an abstraction layer for the hardware, i.e. a consistent way for application programs and operating systems to interact with the keyboard, display, and other input/output devices. Variations in the system hardware are hidden by the BIOS from programs that use BIOS services instead of directly accessing the hardware. MS-DOS (PC DOS), which was the dominant PC operating system from the early 1980s until the mid 1990’s, relied on BIOS services for disk, keyboard, and text display functions. MSWindows NT, Linux, and other protected mode operating systems in general ignore the abstraction layer provided by the BIOS and do not use it after loading, instead accessing the hardware components directly.

BIOS software is stored on a ROM chip on the motherboard. It is specifically designed to work with each particular model of computer, interfacing with various devices that make up the complementary chipset of the system. In modern computer systems, the BIOS contents are stored onflash memory so that the contents can be rewritten without removing the chip from the motherboard. This allows BIOS software to be easily upgraded to add new features or fix bugs, but can make the computer vulnerable to BIOS rootkits. BIOS technology is in transitional process toward the Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) since 2010.