The medical imaging semiconductor market will most likely be dominated by the Field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) very soon. This is true, especially with the Xilinx FPGA. The medical field, especially the imaging sector, has plenty of expensive equipment such as the ultrasound, and the magnetic resonance imaging scanner. Those who market this equipment must find a faster way in marketing these equipment and they must upgrade these equipment every now and then. Even though application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) are cheaper compared with FPGAs, FPGAs will just take a short time for their development cycle. This means it can reach the market faster compared to the ASIC. FPGA, when used in the field of medicine, are reusable, reprogrammable and most of all flexible. Upgrading this medical equipment can only be done with the FPGA. This is why it is more preferable compared with ASIC. Now with the 3-D imaging of the imaging sector of the field of medicine; Xilinx FPGA will be collaborating with Siemens AG. Xilinx Inc. the creator of FPGA and Siemens AG are one of the largest suppliers to the field of medicine.

This collaboration agreed to use FPGA in 3-D imaging platforms for medical imaging products created by Siemens AG. The Siemens designer team and the Xilinx designer team has decided to work together and team up to create a new FPGA-based programmable architecture for the 3-D imaging technology in the medical field equipment. This will make the high speed digital signal processing or DSP performance even faster. The computation capabilities of the VIrtex-4-SX platform will also be leveraged by this partnership.

 

Some of the functions of Virtex-4-SX are it allows high performance for imaging applications of medical equipment up to 512 DSP speed rate of 500MHz, it gives a DSP bandwidth of 256 GigaMAC’s per second, and it reduces the power consumption to 2.3 mW per 100Mhz.

 

Medical imaging these days demands for higher resolution and portable monitoring. This led to the fusion of diagnostic models, algorithm advances, greater device intelligence, and better device communications.

 

These demands can be reached by the Field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs). FPGAs can give higher value programmable technology with no compromise. They will also never become obsolete because they can be reprogrammed and reused for other functions. This means the designer can create multiple models of the product because it is very flexible. It can also upgrade your products to meet new market demands. It can maintain and improve the product in a budget friendly manner.

 

Medical imaging equipment demand these functions the most. This is why FPGAs are best for imaging equipment in the field of medicine. Now with Xilinx and Siemen teaming up, the imaging sector of medical field equipment will become easier to use with a clearer resolution in their images. The imaging process requirements of this medical equipment will be reached by the FPGA. The demands of the new market will surely be reached with the use of FPGA on this imaging equipment.