The simple thing for FPGA leaders like Xilinx and Altera to assume is that Texas Instruments Inc.’s $6.5 billion acquisition of National Semiconductor Corp., announced on April 4 (http://www.eetimes.com/electronics-news/4214765/TI-to-buy-National-Semi-for--6-5-billion), will have next to no influence on the competitive landscape. If anything, it may make TI even less likely than before to pursue a quasi-FPGA design from products like the OMAP processor, since the TI-National combination will emphasize analog products.

Still, Microsemi might take an additional look over its shoulder, since the company acquired FPGA innovator Actel Corp. And that’s not because TI will field any kind of architecture that looks like a programmable entrant, but because TI can take existing ARM licenses and drive embedded RISC processors into accounts that emphasize power-management, voltage control, and other areas Microsemi pursues. To the extent that any FPGA vendor uses an ARM, MIPS, or Power core in conjunction with analog front ends of A/D and D/A converters, they might run into the new expanded TI, which has bid itself into becoming the third largest semiconductor company in the world.

Will Strauss of Forward Concepts Inc. was right to throw up a cautionary note in The New York Times (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/05/technology/texas-instruments-to-buy-national-semiconductor.html) about product duplication in the TI and National catalogs. The pruning and rationalization of standard analog products could take some wind out of TI’s sails. But TI has less to worry about in the area of potential antitrust concerns. When you get right down to it, analog products simply aren’t as glamorous in the semiconductor world as high-integration digital. And in several areas of motor control and power semiconductors, there are several specialized players like Microsemi that prevent a TI-National from dominating the market.

During the late-90s and early-2000s years when Brian Halla was at the helm of National Semi, National made several attempts at being a major player in emerging markets like netbooks and smartphones. In general, National floundered, while TI continued to dominate in specialized consumer markets of wireless and video processing. But National’s analog suite remained impressive, and TI now could use that expanded portfolio to provide more muscle to its existing ARM suite.

Should any FPGA vendor consider a combined TI-National as a factor to worry about in programmable logic? Probably not. But will they see enhanced ARM processors from TI as an important factor in markets that new products like Xilinx’s Zynq and Microsemi’s SmartFusion and Igloo seek to address? Absolutely.