AMD Announces Discontinuation of Various FPGAs

AMD has issued a product discontinuation notice for a number of programmable logic devices currently offered by the company, including all CoolRunner and CoolRunner II CPLDs, as well as the Spartan II and Spartan 3 FPGAs. the notice specifies that there is "[n]o direct replacement" for any of the CPLDs or FPGAs that have been cut. there are no direct replacements." If AMD chooses not to make any future replacements, it will mark the end of the company's CPLD offerings.

As stated in AMD's notice, Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. is discontinuing the XC9500XL?, CoolRunner? XPLA? 3, CoolRunner II, Spartan? II, and Spartan 3, 3A, 3AN, 3E, 3ADSP, and the commercial/industrial oriented "XC" for commercial/industrial and "XA" for automotive product lines.

While AMD has produced CPLDs since its early days, the current lineup consists of Xilinx, which was acquired by AMD in 2022. xilinx's primary product is FPGAs, but the company also produces CPLDs under the CoolRunner brand name. when AMD acquired Xilinx, it appeared to embrace CPLDs with gusto, and its CPLD product page reads "As a marketplace for programmable logic solutions, AMD offers a total solution to meet the CPLD needs of designers". The company even rewrote some of its history, stating on the same page that the CoolRunner II CPLD was "Created by AMD".

However, AMD doesn't seem to be that keen on CPLDs and has discontinued all CoolRunner products. Although the motivation for the discontinuation is unclear, the CoolRunner chips are very old at this point, the CoolRunner II chips having been introduced in 2002. They are now obsolete, as are the older Spartan II and 3 FPGAs. arrived in 2000 and 2003 respectively. It seems that this product discontinuation is not so much about CPLDs as it is about clearing out old products that may not generate much revenue.

A CPLD (Complex Programmable Logic Device) is a processor very similar to an FPGA (Field Programmable Field Array). These devices have programmable hardware that can excel in specific workloads, but lack flexibility once programmed.