FPGA Frontrunners
Empowering Innovation. Building Community. Driving FPGA Excellence.
The FPGA Frontrunners initiative is dedicated to advancing the use and understanding of Field-Programmable Gate Arrays in the UK.
Our mission is to foster collaboration, improve best practices, and address industry-wide challenges , ensuring that FPGA technology continues to thrive in an ever-evolving technological landscape. By connecting professionals and encouraging open knowledge exchange, we aim to build a stronger, more innovative FPGA community across the UK
Key aspects of FPGA Frontrunners
- Designed for FPGA specialists, we create opportunities to connect with industry peers, exchange practical knowledge, and collaborate on solutions to today’s most pressing design and implementation challenges
- We champion best practices in FPGA design, development, and application, encouraging the use of proven methodologies, efficient workflows, and innovative tools that raise the standard of engineering excellence.
- Collaboration is at the heart of our mission. We bring together engineers, suppliers, and researchers to address shared challenges, create opportunities, and drive progress across the industry. Through open dialogue and strategic partnerships, we help the FPGA ecosystem adapt and thrive in an ever-changing technological landscape.
- Our events feature wide spectrum of topics, from security and compliance to AI acceleration, high-performance computing, signal and image processing, low-latency networking, safety-critical design, verification methodologies, and the latest advances in FPGA tools and architectures. These sessions inspire innovation and equip our members with the knowledge to push the boundaries of what’s possible.
Steering Board
Mike Bartley
Alpium Consulting
Mike Bartley
Founder and CEO, Alpium Consulting
Mike started in software testing in 1988 after completing a PhD in Math, moving to semiconductor Design Verification (DV) in 1994, verifying designs (on Silicon and FPGA) going into commercial and safety-related sectors such as mobile phones, automotive, comms, cloud/data servers, and Artificial Intelligence. Mike built and managed state-of-the-art DV teams inside several companies, specialising in CPU verification.
Mike founded and grew a DV services company to 450+ engineers globally, successfully delivering services and solutions to over 50+ clients . The company was acquired by Tessolve Semiconductors in 2020 and Mike worked at Tessolve as SVP.
Mike started Alpinum in April 2025 to deliver a range of start-of-the art industry solutions:
- Alpinum AI provides tools and automations using Artificial Intelligence to help companies reduce development costs (by up to 90%!)
- Alpinum Services provides RTL to GDS VLSI services from nearshore and offshore centres in Vietnam, India, Egypt, Eastern Europe, Mexico and Costa Rica.
- Alpinum Consulting also provides strategic board level consultancy services, helping companies to grow.
- Alpinum training department provides self-paced, fully online training in System Verilog, UVM Introduction and Advanced, Formal Verification, DV methodologies for SV, UVM, VHDL and OSVVM and CPU/RISC-V.
- Alpinum Events organises a number of free-to-attend industry events
You can contact Mike (mike@alpinumconsulting.com or +44 7796 307958) or book a meeting with Mike using Calendly (https://calendly.com/mike-alpinumconsulting).
Flemming Christensen
Sundance Multiprocessor Technology Ltd
Flemming Christensen
Managing Director, Sundance Multiprocessor Technology Ltd
Flemming founded Sundance in 1989, designing and building Multiprocessor solution based around INMOS’s Transputer.
Sundance Multiprocessor Technology Ltd. was founded in 1989 and has thousands of man-years of experience operating as an Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM). It offers a range of Commercial-of-the-shelf (COTS) boards for a broad range of customers.
We have in-house manufacturing equipment for electronics board and full test facilities. We run an ISO9001 Quality System to monitor all processes and have done since 1999.
Dilip Luharia
Phixos
Dilip Luharia
Sales Manager, Phixos
Senior technology and engineering services professional
Dilip Luharia is a senior technology and engineering services professional with extensive experience supporting complex programmes in Aerospace & Defence, Telecoms, Medical, Semiconductor, and Industrial sectors.
He has worked across UK and international environments with global engineering organisations, contributing to the delivery of large‑scale, high‑integrity engineering and R&D programmes. His experience includes close collaboration with technical teams and stakeholders across Europe, India, and the US, supporting regulated and mission‑critical environments.
His background combines a strong understanding of engineering, systems, and product development with long‑term involvement in complex, multi‑disciplinary programmes within regulated industries.
Jon Older
IT Dev
Jon Older
Business Development Director, IT Dev
Senior technology and engineering services professional
Jon Older is responsible for ITDev’s business development. As a member of the management team, he helps to define company strategy, looking for new opportunities for growth.
He started his career as a Digital Design Engineer with Plessey Radar, on the Isle of Wight, before moving in to the semiconductor industry with GEC Plessey Semiconductors. Returning to Hampshire, He joined Philips Semiconductors where I spent 13 years in various roles, ultimately being responsible for verification and system level design developments.
He moved in to business development when he joined the NMI, the UK’s electronics trade association. He spent 3 years widening their scope of appeal by establishing the System & Software networks, including the successful FPGA network.
