New ContributorDoes anyone have any insight to what is going on with FPGA inventories. Do you have to be a select Intel partner to get parts? Standard distribution (Digikey) has nothing. When we ask leadtime the answer is on select customers are getting parts and they don't know the real leadtime. I hope an Intel FPGA person can help here.
Here is a snap shot from digikey on Intel FPGA just checking stock and active parts
New ContributorI would say all the major FPGA vendors are in the same boat. They are all dependent upon a fab .
I know I'm seeing the same issues with Intel/Altera, AMD/Xilinx and Lattice. So if you do switch to someone else, make sure you can actually get the parts, then buy them first before changing the board. Otherwise they may not be available when you get the board done.
Even then, other components like voltage regulators and microprocessors are in short supply. I've been seeing 2023 time frames for several of these items already as well.
Pete
Regular ContributorWelcome to the REAL WORLD.
Big companies (ie, strategic accounts) that source FPGAs (and all other devices by the way, FPGAs are not unique) have large purchasing departments and they don't normally buy thru distributors like Mouser, Digikey, etc but go directly to manufacturers like Intel/Altera, AMD/Xiline, etc AND negotiate pricing/delivery CONTRACTS. They lock up their needs well into the future. Any uncommited/unpurchased parts then make it out thru distributors to those who buy sporadically in small volume. You may not like it, but that is how the world works.
Unfair and unacceptable to you, probably true. I would feel the same. But grounds for a class action suit? Not likely.
Occasional Contributor...they don't normally buy thru distributors like Mouser, Digikey, etc
Then where is the place for Arrow, Avnet and Future Electronics the so called top 3 distributors.
Regular ContributorArrow, Avnet, Allied, Mouser, DigiKey, Newark are all top tier distributors.
Unless one of these distributors signs contracts to buy a certain number of parts at guaranteed delivery they won't get parts.
They will all go to large corporations that negotiate confirmed contracted purchase delivery orders.
You may not like how this works, and suggest that Intel 'hold back' some parts to supply to distributors for low-end buyers.
But that decision is up to Intel sales, and normally in my experience will go with confirmed high volume buyers first.
In the past I have seen large volume buyers contract and buy parts, then they don't need them after all, so they release them to distributors to sell.
That is not happening now.
Regular ContributorCiccio, nobody is laughing at you.
But you have unrealistic expectations given the current semiconductor market realities.
You are four people that have spent US$300 over four years on your project.
My definition of this is a hobby.
There are companies with dozens to hundreds of people that can't ship existing product because they can't get parts.
Not just FPGAs, but microcontrollers, memory, discrete devices. All types are under severe allocation by vendors.
So you really do need to open your eyes and look at the real world.
Occasional ContributorHas anyone tired getting hold of the post synthesis net list (.vo or .vho) and fitting it in a competitor FPGA like Efinix uisng their fitter? Ofcouse the logic Element library has to be hacked.
The advantage is reuse of the existing code that contains a lot of “IP Catalog” components.
Or in my case where the design is in AHDL.
Occasional ContributorThis story has an happy ending. We migrated to Efinix and survived.
Charles Papon is my hero.
I am pleased to give back this small contribution to the open source community which helped me survive.
Efinix devices are the only readily available FPGA in market to the common engineer (June 2022)
As engineers migrate to Efinix from vendor dependent designs (like designs in AHDL, designs that use proprietary modules, proprietary SoC like Nios ) SpinalHDL and SaxonSoc is a God sent savior. A solid reference code in SpinalHDL is the need of the hour.
Please check out this reference design to kick start your migration for survival:
SaxonSoc/readme.md at dev-0.3 · surabibio/SaxonSoc (github.com)
Ravi Ganesh
Regular ContributorLOL look at the executive team at Efinix: https://www.efinixinc.com/company-executive-leadership.html
From: Altera/Cypress, Altera/Xilinx/Lattice, MicroSemi/Mitel, Altera/Micron, Altera, Marvell
One of the big investors is AMD/Xilinx
So your scorekeeping is flawed.
Efinix is in a good position now because they have no large customers soaking up all the parts that can be manufactured.
Appears they use TSMC as a fab based on their news feed.
And it looks like, based on jobs listings, Efinix does hardware design in Penang, Malaysia; and software in Toronto, Canada.
China is not mentioned except for a sales office in Hong Kong, and their use of TSMC as a fab in Taiwan.
Occasional ContributorThis is what Efinix says:
Unlike traditional FPGAs, Efinix® FPGAs are manufactured on a standard CMOS silicon process - no special recipes or secret sauces. With a standard process, these FPGAs are easier for the fab to produce and they can optimize their production at volume. These production-quality FPGAs meet a sweet spot in the market with fewer production challenges than traditional devices.
What Intel lacks is competence, leave alone innovation.
Anyone installing Nios II embedded design suite which is an essential part of Quartus will vouch this.
2. Installation of Eclipse for EDS itself is a challenging task. You have to copy paste the plugin from Intel, then enable WSL from Micorsoft , then install Ubuntu from Windows Stores and then some ubuntu tools like "make" via "apt" from Ubuntu.
See how messed up it is.
Engineers that cannot make a proper installation disk cannot be expected to react to a complex problem such as the global semiconductor crisis.
Sorry Donald, you are now riding a terminally sick horse.
New ContributorSo just an update. I found another authorized distributor who managed to get me some parts. It is Macnica America. They did a better job than any of your other distributors (knew who to speak too). No one from Intel ever got back to me. Kind of sad.
Occasional ContributorI am into design of my third non-Altera board with Titanium
If Intel had given a 100 chips I would not have gone away. I am a small customer, but I feel my contributions to competitor is a force multiplier for their growth.
Please hold your customers at least in future.
