Fabless semiconductor companies are often stuck between a rock and a hard place when it comes to implementing new designs. FPGAs with embedded soft core or external microcontroller are not an option for fabless IC companies because the company's "secret sauce" is vulnerable to theft and cloning when implemented in an FPGA. In addition FPGAs have poor performance and power characteristics. FPGAs typically consume 44-times more power and operate at about 1/8 the speed of an integrated SoC.