New Industry Products

Ultra-Low Power Programmable Logic Devices for Wearables and Mobile Devices

October 29, 2018 by Paul Shepard

GOWIN Semiconductor Corp. has introduced its latest family of small size and low power FPGA products, the GW1NZ “Mobile FPGA”.  Using proprietary design techniques and the latest in ultra-low power processes, GOWIN continues to add value to mobile and wearable applications through the development of its innovative FPGA solutions.

Today, mobile and wearable applications are pushing the limits on power usage, especially where the size of devices are causing batteries to get smaller. Yet end users are wanting better battery efficiency to reduce their charging time.

GOWIN addresses these concerns with the GW1NZ “Mobile FPGA.”  Based on it CoolSmart® technology and TSMC’s 55nm Ultra Low Power Embedded FLASH process, GOWIN delivers an ultra-low power, small size, and cost-effective FPGA solution targeted for these mobile and wearable applications.

“Mobile and wearable device manufacturers are struggling to get the best power efficiency out of their products,” said Scott Casper, Director of Sales, Americas. “The Mobile FPGA allows these manufacturers to further stretch the power limits of their designs with a small size and cost-effective solution.  We believe the GW1NZ Mobile FPGA is the first of its kind offering a cost comparable alternative to off the shelf MCU’s or ASIC’s but running faster and more efficient.”

Available in a 16-ball 1.8mm x 1.8 mm WLCSP package, the GW1NZ “Mobile FPGA” includes GOWIN’s CoolSmart® Technology, enabling a standby power below 10uW (ZV device).  It will also feature MIPI I3C and MIPI SPMI master and slave hardcore IP for direct connection to other MIPI compliant devices.  The first offering will be a 1K LUT device; more sizes and package options are forthcoming.

Device programming is accomplished with GOWIN’s proprietary toolchain.  In addition, a complete library of IP cores and reference designs are available to assist in developing platform solutions.

The GW1NZ-LV1 (1.2V core VCC) device is in production today.  The GW1N-ZV1 (0.9V core VCC) samples will be available in early 2019.