Puppies are for life, but ASICs really can be just for Christmas

作为圣诞方法，思想自然地向我们的朋友和亲人转向礼物。在一年中的任何时候给予人们作为礼物的人们一般都被吓到了，特别是通过动物慈善机构，这可能是真实的，许多孩子仍然在圣诞节那天仍然在树下找到毛茸茸的朋友。

Taking responsibility for a pet is a major milestone in a child’s life and one that needs to be treated with the utmost importance by the child and their parents or guardians. So important is this message that in 1978 the animal charity then known as the National Canine Defence League (now known as the Dog’s Trust) coined the phrase ‘A dog is for life, not just for Christmas’. It’s a slogan that has stood the test of time, for very good reasons.

Maxim很快就嵌入了人们的心灵中，它继续被释放。如果应该持续很长时间，你可以保证有人会说明'这不仅仅是圣诞节'。迅速发现了进入流行文化的方式，这是一个可靠的模因来源。

The counterargument to this truism is that some things are only expected to last a short while, however, if you ask an engineer if that applies to ASICs they may very well respond with ‘well, they’re not just for Christmas, are they!’ In the past, that may have been true, because the semiconductor industry has nurtured that interpretation. It is generally seen as an expensive undertaking to develop a full-custom IC, particularly if you are a relatively small company or have low volume demands. However, today, the reality is that ASICs don’t need to last forever to make economic sense.

Of course, there are many good reasons why a full-custom approach can be seen as a long-term commitment for engineering companies. For one thing, they offer a lower unit cost per function when measured against ASSPs or FPGAs. That’s not really surprising, because it is really why many OEMs consider a full-custom IC in the first place. However, if you suggest to these companies that they could replace their ASIC on a relatively frequent basis and still save money, they might reach for the spreadsheet in disbelief and start punching in numbers.
如果您认为每个ASIC在隔离并捆绑一个项目下的所有成本，那么它会评估薪酬后期更简单;它的成本这么多，所以我们需要为其发货，以使其成为财务意义。亚博电竞菠菜然而，ASIC上的退款可能非常短，因此人为地扩展了一个设备的寿命，并且以引入新功能的成本确实在第一个地方选择了选择ASIC背后的逻辑。

In addition to this, OEMs should consider ASICs as having a product roadmap all of their own; the cost of making small changes to a full-custom design can be negligible but extend the useful lifetime of that design by many months or even years. This may require a realignment of expectations within a company’s engineering department, but should not be ignored.

在考虑下降全定制IC路线时，在不断变化的市场环境中可以保持多长时间竞争力的竞争性是工程决策过程中的一个重要因素。如果需要，有许多方法可以扩展ASIC的生命周期，例如采用软件定义的方法，其中一些功能在固件中管理。这将允许在生产/组装期间或通过空中（OTA）更新的工厂发布后，在发布之前将修改ASIC的功能。事实上，由于这么多产品现在在很大程度上被他们的固件亚博电竞菠菜定义，因此OTA方法已经成为某些产品的寿命的基础。智能连接的电视和机顶盒，其中许多在基于Linux的软件分布上运行，现在将此OTA探讨了硬件配置的方法。在ASIC中可以很容易地实现相同的方法，以使其成为延长的寿命。

While small design tweaks or a software-defined approach can help extend the lifecycle of an ASIC, the reality is in many cases these measures may not even be required. The cost of developing and manufacturing custom ICs is on a downward trend, influenced by the economic rules that drive the semiconductor industry in general. Riding on the coattails of this trend means that taking a full-custom IC approach is likely to be much more affordable than many OEMs may think.

与您作为孩子收到的小狗不同，圣诞节早上一个明亮的圣诞节早晨，Asics不再是长期的承诺。把它们想象成你所拥有的玩具，包括电池，并在圣诞节全部耗尽，只能通过新年的一天延伸到橱柜的后面。

愉快的圣诞节，大家！