RISC-V AI Accelerator
Architecture, RTL and Verification for an Always-On Edge NPU
- NPU Efficiency (INT8)
- 10 TOPS/W
- Design target
- Always-On Power Budget
- < 5 mW
- Design target
- MAC Units in Systolic Array
- 256
Specialised engineering
FPGA Design & Development Services
Rapid Circuitry designs FPGA logic for DSP, high-speed interfaces, industrial automation and edge AI acceleration on AMD (Xilinx), Altera and Lattice devices. We take a design from requirements through RTL in VHDL, Verilog or SystemVerilog (or C/C++ HLS), verification and timing closure, and deliver documented source, testbenches and results, bitstreams and resource-utilization reports. A typical cycle runs 8 to 20 weeks, depending on complexity.
Quick answer
- What we build
- FPGA logic for DSP, high-speed interfaces, industrial automation and edge-AI acceleration on AMD (Xilinx), Altera and Lattice devices, from requirements and RTL through verification and timing closure.
- Who it is for
- Hardware teams that need custom logic, high-speed interfaces or hardware acceleration beyond what a microcontroller or processor can provide.
- Typical timeline
- 8–20 weeks. The range depends on design complexity and verification scope
- Typical cost
- Quoted per project as a fixed-scope proposal. For typical ranges, see our hardware development cost benchmarks.
- Tools and technologies
- VHDL, Verilog, SystemVerilog, HLS
Every project is quoted as a fixed-scope proposal within 3–5 business days of a discovery call. Discuss your product
Specifications
- AMD (Xilinx), Altera, Lattice
- UVM and formal verification
- PCIe, DDR4/5, JESD204, MIPI
Capabilities
What we deliver
Advanced HDL architecture design
Expert VHDL, Verilog, and SystemVerilog development with advanced pipelining, parallelization techniques, and optimized microarchitectures for maximum throughput and minimum latency.
Custom IP core development
Specialized IP core creation and integration including high-performance DSP blocks, memory controllers, custom processors, and application-specific accelerators with rigorous verification and documentation.
AI & neural network acceleration
Custom hardware architectures for deep learning inference and training optimized for performance and power efficiency, including CNN/RNN accelerators, tensor processing units, and quantized neural networks.
Advanced verification frameworks
Comprehensive verification using UVM, SystemVerilog assertions, formal methods, and hardware-in-the-loop testing to ensure robust FPGA implementations that perform reliably in mission-critical applications.
High-performance DSP systems
Real-time digital signal processing implementations for radar, software-defined radio, medical imaging, and high-speed communications with maximized throughput and minimal resource utilization.
High-speed interface integration
Implementation of complex high-speed interfaces including PCIe Gen4/5, 100G Ethernet, DDR4/5, JESD204, and MIPI with precise timing constraints and rigorous signal integrity analysis.
2 more capabilities
SoC/FPGA integration
FPGA fabric alongside Arm processors on Xilinx, Altera and Lattice SoC platforms: embedded Linux bring-up, kernel drivers for the custom IP, and hardware/software partitioning decided early.
High-level synthesis (HLS)
Accelerated development using C/C++/OpenCL-based high-level synthesis workflows, enabling rapid algorithm-to-hardware implementation while maintaining performance optimization capabilities.
Capabilities and deliverables
Design expertise
- Architecture design and optimization for target FPGA platforms
- Timing closure and critical path optimization techniques
- Resource-efficient algorithm implementation
- Robust verification strategies and test coverage analysis
- Multi-clock domain and asynchronous design methodologies
Deliverables
- Fully documented HDL/HLS source code with version control
- Performance benchmarks and resource utilization reports
- Synthesized bitstreams and programming files
- Comprehensive verification testbenches and results
- Integration and user documentation with example applications
Process
How we work
Requirements and planning
Analyse the requirements, check technical feasibility and component availability, and agree the milestones.
Deliverable: Technical requirements document, project milestones and risk assessment
Design and architecture
Detailed system design and component selection, with design review, signal-integrity and power analysis.
Deliverable: System architecture, schematic, PCB layout and firmware architecture
Implementation
Prototype hardware fabrication and firmware development, with code reviews and hardware verification.
Deliverable: Prototype hardware, firmware codebase, test procedures and documentation
Validation and testing
Functional, environmental and regulatory testing against the requirements.
Deliverable: Test results report, compliance documentation and release package
Planning
Scope and cost
Start with a non-confidential summary of your product and the milestone you need to reach next.
Planning guides
FPGA Acceleration for Edge AI
Explore where FPGA acceleration fits an embedded inference pipeline and how it affects architecture choices.
Arm and RISC-V Architecture Guide
Compare processor ecosystem and architecture considerations before selecting a platform.
Cost planning
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
We work with Xilinx (Vivado) including Artix, Kintex, Virtex, and Zynq series, as well as Altera (Quartus) Cyclone, Arria, and Stratix families. For cost-sensitive applications, we also use Lattice and Microchip FPGAs. Our engineers work daily in AMD Vivado/Vitis and Altera Quartus Prime.
Yes, we develop custom IP cores for signal processing, communication protocols, motor control, video processing, and more. We also integrate third-party IP cores and can optimize existing designs for better performance or reduced resource utilization.
A typical FPGA development workflow progresses through requirements definition, RTL design in VHDL or Verilog, functional simulation, synthesis, place-and-route, timing analysis, and hardware verification, with a full cycle taking 8 to 20 weeks depending on complexity. The most time-consuming phases are usually functional verification and timing closure for high-speed designs operating above 200 MHz.
Choose FPGA when you need deterministic real-time processing, massive parallel computation, custom hardware interfaces, or high-bandwidth signal processing. FPGAs excel at tasks like video processing, high-speed data acquisition, custom communication protocols, and applications requiring nanosecond-level timing precision.
We prepare RTL for ASIC migration (synthesis-friendly coding, DFT-ready structure and verification collateral) and work with your ASIC design-services partner, who handles physical design and tape-out. This pathway suits high-volume production where per-unit cost reduction justifies the NRE investment.
FPGA power optimization targets static leakage (reduced by selecting low-power device families), dynamic switching power (reduced by minimizing toggle rates, clock gating unused logic blocks, and using lower clock frequencies), and I/O power (reduced by selecting appropriate I/O standards). Architectural choices like time-multiplexing DSP blocks and using block RAM instead of distributed logic can reduce dynamic power by 30 to 50 percent.
Modern FPGAs integrate hardened multi-gigabit transceivers supporting protocols such as PCIe Gen3/Gen4/Gen5, 10/25/100 Gigabit Ethernet, USB 3.0/3.1, SATA III, JESD204B/C for data converters, and Aurora for custom high-speed links, with per-lane data rates ranging from 1 Gbps to over 58 Gbps. Implementing these interfaces requires careful attention to reference clock jitter, channel loss budgets, and equalization settings.
FPGAs excel at real-time video processing because their parallel architecture processes pixels as a stream through parallel pipeline stages, achieving deterministic latency critical for machine vision inspection, medical imaging, and broadcast video at 4K/8K resolutions. Common FPGA video processing pipelines include debayering, color space conversion, noise reduction, scaling, and codec encoding/decoding, all connected through AXI-Stream interfaces.
SoC FPGAs like AMD-Xilinx Zynq and Altera Agilex integrate hardened ARM Cortex-A processors alongside programmable logic fabric, enabling a single-chip solution that runs Linux or an RTOS for control-plane tasks while offloading data-plane processing to custom hardware accelerators. This eliminates the need for a separate processor PCB and provides low-latency communication between software and hardware through AXI interconnects.
FPGA debugging relies on simulation-based verification using testbenches in SystemVerilog or UVM environments, and on-chip debugging using embedded logic analyzers such as Xilinx ILA or Altera SignalTap that capture internal signal activity through the JTAG interface. Formal verification tools can mathematically prove that specific properties hold across all possible input combinations, catching corner-case bugs that simulation might miss.
FPGA prototyping maps an ASIC's RTL design onto large FPGAs to create a functional hardware prototype running at 10 to 100 MHz, enabling real-world software development, driver validation, and system integration months before silicon is available. Multi-FPGA prototyping platforms from providers like Synopsys (HAPS) automatically partition large designs across multiple devices, catching system-level integration bugs before committing to tape-out costs.
Partial reconfiguration allows a defined region of the FPGA fabric to be reprogrammed with new logic while the rest continues operating, enabling dynamic hardware time-multiplexing where different accelerator functions share the same physical resources. This is valuable in software-defined radio systems that switch modulation schemes, data center SmartNICs loading different network processing pipelines, and space-constrained designs where the FPGA cannot hold all required functions simultaneously.
Working with Rapid Circuitry
How much does a project cost, and how is pricing structured?
Each project is quoted as a fixed-scope proposal: a statement of work with milestones, deliverables and pricing, sent within 3–5 business days of the discovery call. The price depends on the requirements, how mature the design is, technical complexity, the number of prototype iterations and the validation scope. Longer engagements can also run as a retainer or a hybrid of both. For budgeting before you contact us, our hardware development cost benchmarks and the PCB design, firmware and IoT cost guides give indicative ranges with their assumptions stated. They are planning ranges, not quotes.
How long does a project take?
It depends on the scope and on what already exists when we start. As planning ranges from our cost benchmarks: a single PCB layout takes 2–6 weeks per board and embedded firmware 4–16 weeks. A connected (IoT) product takes 3–12 months from concept to a production-ready design, and a regulated medical device 12–24 months to a 510(k) submission-ready package; from idea to mass production, a typical connected product takes 9–18 months. The proposal sets out a dated milestone plan, and you receive weekly progress updates during the project.
Who owns the intellectual property?
You do. Our contracts assign the intellectual property in the project work product (schematics, PCB design files, firmware source code and documentation) to you on payment, and we hand over the source files, not only fabrication outputs or compiled binaries. The exact terms are set out in the signed agreement for each engagement.
Do you sign NDAs?
Yes. We sign a mutual NDA before any technical discussion of your project. Send your standard NDA or use ours; we return it signed within one business day.
Can you work with clients in the US, Europe and Japan?
Yes. We are based in Hyderabad, India, and work with product teams in India, the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Japan, Australia, the Middle East and other markets. Our office hours are 10:30–19:00 India Standard Time (UTC+5:30), Monday to Saturday, and we schedule design reviews across time zones, typically from US Pacific to Central European time. Japan is 3.5 hours ahead of India, so our first four hours overlap the Japanese afternoon. Prototypes and documentation ship by international courier such as DHL or FedEx. Our hardware outsourcing guide covers what to agree before an international project starts.
Do you hand off to manufacturing, and which contract manufacturers do you work with?
Yes. We prepare the manufacturing release package — fabrication and assembly drawings, the BOM with approved manufacturers, programming files and test specifications — and hand it over to the contract manufacturer (EMS) you choose. If you have not chosen one, we help you evaluate candidates through technical capability assessments and a pilot build. See manufacturing support.
Are you ISO 9001 or ISO 13485 certified?
No. Rapid Circuitry does not hold ISO 9001, ISO 13485 or other certificates. Our processes are aligned with ISO 9001:2015, and we design products to the requirements of the standards that apply to them — for example IEC 60601-1 and IEC 62304 for medical devices (with design documentation structured so your ISO 13485 quality system can absorb it) and IEC 61000 for EMC — and we specify IPC-A-610 workmanship classes for assembly. We prepare the product and its documentation for certification testing at accredited laboratories; the certificate or approval is issued for your product by the laboratory, notified body or regulator.
What do you need from me to start?
A short, non-confidential description of the product and what it must do (sensors, connectivity, on-device processing), the target production volume and unit cost, the markets and regulations it must meet (for example FDA, CE or FCC), your timeline, and what already exists: a concept, a proof of concept, schematics, PCB files or firmware. After the NDA, the next step is a 30-minute discovery call with the engineers who would work on the project, followed by the fixed-scope proposal. Send a project brief to begin.
Explore
Related services
Firmware development
Embedded C/C++ firmware on bare metal, an RTOS or embedded Linux: drivers, bring-up, secure boot and OTA updates.
Embedded hardware development
System architecture, MCU/SoC selection, schematic and PCB design, board bring-up, validation and manufacturing handoff.
Electronics design
Precision analog, mixed-signal and power circuits: sensor front ends, power supplies and battery management.