Dealing with the Obsolescence of Programmable Logic Devices (PLDs) in Electronic Products

PLDs are commonplace in today's electronic products. When such devices reach their end-of-life, the product manufacturer must find a viable solution, both technical and economical. Replacing a PLD by an ASIC is a viable alternative that is explored in this paper, using a real case as an example. Boundary business conditions for deciding for this option are presented. Depending on these conditions, obsolescence can be seen as an opportunity for the improvement of the product, taking advantage of other benefits that an ASIC brings. As an ASIC development can be seen as risky, pricy, and as having a long time to market, a structured ASIC platform, called ICX, that mitigates all of these three aspects, is also presented.