Technavio’s latest market research report on the global field-programmable gate array (FPGA) market provides an analysis of the most important trends expected to impact the market outlook from 2017-2021. Technavio defines an emerging trend as a factor that has the potential to significantly impact the market and contribute to its growth or decline.

Sunil Kumar Singh, a lead analyst from Technavio, specializing in research on semiconductor equipment sector says, “The global FPGA market is expected to grow at a CAGR of close to 9% during the forecast period. The market is witnessing growth due to increased adoption in flourishing end-user segments such as telecommunications and consumer electronics. Demand for optimization in big data analytics is also leading to increased use of FPGAs in networking and storage applications.”

The top three emerging trends driving the global FPGA market according to Technavio hardware and semiconductor research analysts are:

• Increased proliferation of IoT
• Automation in automobiles
• Increasing number of embedded processors in FPGA design

Increased proliferation of IoT

IoT is the latest trend in the global technology arena. IoT connects all essential home devices to the internet. This includes car, TV, laptop, coffee maker, automated door locks, GPS-enabled pet trackers, wearable devices, and mobile phones, forming a network of connected devices.

IoT comprises a staggering list of applications ranging from smart consumer electronics to wearables and automobiles. Designers must tackle significant implementation challenges, to deal with interfaces that are incompatible to IoT configuration, and create future systems that can accommodate billions of more devices and their performance requirements and processes. An FPGA-based design approach will assist in addressing these challenges due to their key ability of reprogrammability and low power consumption.

Automation in automobiles

Leading manufacturers such as Toyota, Audi, and Mercedes have invested considerable resources dedicated to R&D of automobile automation. Next-generation automobiles are expected to include speech recognition and video and image compatibilities, to provide optimal driving experience.

FPGAs allow multi-threading, which enables them to perform different functions in parallel. For instance, in Park Assist app, pictures are captured by cameras and are sent to a data fusion module. The data fusion module processes the image to display the corners of a car on the screen.

“Image processing functions such as image warping, analytics and object classification, and high dynamic range could be implemented on one chip using an FPGA due to its multi-threading feature. This allows fast booting of videos, enabling FPGAs to be widely used for surround-view camera systems and night vision systems in automobiles,” says Sunil.

Increasing number of embedded processors in FPGA design

Since 2012, the global FPGA market is witnessing an increase in the number of embedded processors in FPGA designs, to support growing demand for multiple function capability of FPGAs. This demand is further driven by emerging technologies such as IoT and new age smart devices such as wearables and their demanding processor requirements. FPGA modules can reduce power consumption and at the same time, improve on performance to deliver optimum output in reduced time.