Consumer electronic products are dramatically improving every year by continually adding features. This fast evolution puts tremendous competitive time pressure on consumer electronic manufacturers for products with the latest technology.

Traditional design methodologies of using ASSPs or ASICs alone come with significant drawbacks. ASSPs come with a pre-defined feature set and rarely support the latest technology features, making it impossible for manufacturers to offer differentiated products. ASICs have long development cycles that run counter to the short product cycle requirements of consumer markets. Hence, new design methodologies that promote flexibility, rapid innovation, and low initial development costs are required. For system designers, this means using programmable logic devices (PLDs) along with ASICs or ASSPs to provide the agility and differentiation needed to be competitive in the consumer electronics market.