I don't think they are talking about silicon designers.
The article quotes the professor as hoping FPAA's will allow "a wide range of less-skilled users to try out sophisticated, low-power (analog) techniques".
In other words, typical device-level design engineers.
The article quotes the professor as hoping FPAA's will allow "a wide range of less-skilled users to try out sophisticated, low-power (analog) techniques".
In other words, typical device-level design engineers.