The News: Lattice Semiconductor’s CrossLink family of innovative small field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) is growing again, this time through the company’s new Lattice CrossLinkU-NX embedded vision FPGAs that include integrated USB for ease of use by device makers. The latest FPGAs are built to help device makers meet the needs of their customers for applications in the computing, industrial, automotive, and consumer markets. Read the full press release on the Lattice Semiconductor website.

Lattice Unveils CrossLinkU-NX FPGAs With Integrated USB

Analyst Take: Lattice Semiconductor’s latest CrossLinkU-NX FPGAs continue the company’s established strategy – building out its collection of fully-featured, flexible, and low-power Lattice Nexus FPGAs to fit the latest needs of device makers in the consumer, industrial, automotive, and computing marketplaces. And this latest Lattice CrossLinkU-NX FPGA fits in with the growing product family, adding more useful features that device makers asked for and will welcome in their products.

Setting the Lattice CrossLinkU-NX FPGA model apart is that it is the industry’s first FPGA with integrated USB device functionality in the small form factor class, according to Lattice. Inspired by requests for USB host interfaces and connectivity by customers, the CrossLinkU-NX FPGAs are built to work with USB-equipped system designs while simplifying thermal management by their use of a hardened USB controller and physical layer, a low-power standby mode, and a full set of reference designs.

I believe the release of this FPGA is a smart move by Lattice because it will give device makers a new option to reduce the power consumption and total cost of ownership (TCO) for their products while helping to meet design footprint requirements that are necessary to expand the use of AI and vision applications.

To me, one of Lattice’s strengths in the market is figuring out what customers need from their FPGAs and then designing and building just the right components and systems to fill and deliver those requirements. I have pointed out this strength when previously writing about Lattice products, but to me, the company’s strategy of filling niches where and when they are found is smart, serves customers, and increases sales and revenue while expanding the company’s rich offerings. I love this demand-based product planning, and I believe it is also appreciated by Lattice’s customers.

Lattice Semiconductor CrossLinkU-NX FPGAs Features List

The new Lattice CrossLinkU-NX FPGAs, which are part of the company’s Nexus FPGA family, are vision-processing FPGAs with USB, featuring hardened USB 2.0 performance up to 480 Mbps and USB 3.2 performance up to 5 Gbps. These latest FPGAs are built to reduce the TCO of devices that use them and the amount of space that is required for physical components. They also reduce the FPGA fabric resources that are required for the USB device controller, according to Lattice.

The new CrossLinkU-NX FPGAs also feature a low-power standby mode with always-on capabilities that promise to extend battery life while simplifying system thermal management within devices that use the chips. And the built-in power features enable optimized power consumption for typical embedded vision applications, which is a desirable capability.

The new FPGAs also include a full set of reference designs using a Lattice Propel template, host driver, and example host utilities for USB to I/O bridging and MIPI CSI-2 to USB bridging applications to accelerate USB device implementation on the FPGA. These reference designs make it much easier for product designers to build mockups and device designs using the chips for a wide range of industries and applications. Uses can include factory automation, medical imaging, consumer and PC cameras, and test and measurement instrumentation.

The FPGAs include 33K logic cell density, 64 digital signal processors, and up to 3.7 MB of embedded memory. Onboard device security uses Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) 256 bitstream encryption, ECC256 bitstream authentication, and True Random Number Generator (TRNG), AES, and Hashed Message Authentication Code/Secure Hash Algorithms (HMAC/SHA) for user security.

The new FPGAs are available to device makers for sampling and are supported by the latest release of Lattice Radiant design software. They are expected to be available to manufacturers for use in the Q4 of 2023.

Lattice Semiconductor CrossLinkU-NX FPGAs: What This Release Means

Lattice Semiconductor began working on its FPGA family in Q4 of 2019 when the company released its first Nexus CrossLink-NX FPGAs for enhanced embedded vision use cases. Since that time, Lattice has released five more Nexus FPGA models, and in April 2023, it released its first advanced system control FPGA, the Lattice MachXO5T-NX model. That FPGA was a game-changer for device manufacturers because these new chips deliver real-world ways to help Lattice customers address challenges related to growing system management design complexity.

The new CrossLinkU-NX FPGAs continue Lattice’s progress in the marketplace and will bring product designers new components that will help drive device innovations, packaging, and performance long into the future.

One of the greatest features of all of Lattice Semiconductor’s FPGAs is their programmable I/O features, which makes them particularly suitable for system control uses where adjustability, flexibility, and upgradability are useful added benefits.

Lattice’s drive to keep improving and expanding its FPGA models and lines is a huge boon in the industry, giving device makers around the world products that can be used in a wide range of applications, from IoT to industrial robotics, vehicles, and more.

In late July, when Lattice unveiled its Q2 2023 earnings results and its thirteenth consecutive quarter of record earnings, it showed a big revenue increase in its industrial and automotive segments with a 55% rise to $115.5 million, up from $74.5 million year-over-year. That is impressive as part of the company’s total Q2 revenue of $190.08 million, but I see even more expansion of Lattice’s market share and revenue coming in this market as more FPGAs are being integrated into the newest cars and trucks – both gasoline-powered and electric vehicles – as the segment continues to grow.

It will be interesting to watch Lattice as it continues to bolster its innovative wares in the global FPGA market into the future.

Disclosure: The Futurum Group is a research and advisory firm that engages or has engaged in research, analysis, and advisory services with many technology companies, including those mentioned in this article. The author does not hold any equity positions with any company mentioned in this article.

Analysis and opinions expressed herein are specific to the analyst individually and data and other information that might have been provided for validation, not those of The Futurum Group as a whole.