Line rate, held
High-throughput datapaths and digital front-ends: radio and converter interfaces, high-speed serial links, Ethernet and packet processing, and DSP chains that have to hold their timing and latency budget at full line rate.
FPGA Consulting — Croatia, EU
FPGA engineering for systems that cannot fail.
GateLink is a boutique FPGA consultancy in Croatia, delivering design, verification and hardware engineering for telecommunications and defense systems worldwide.
- Croatia · EU
- Telecom & defense focus
- Senior engineers only
- Vendor-neutral toolchains
01About
A small team, chosen for depth.
GateLink is a boutique FPGA consultancy based in Croatia, working with clients across Europe and beyond. We are deliberately small: every engagement is handled by senior engineers who have spent their careers in digital design, not staffed out to a bench. Our work centres on telecommunications and defense — domains where requirements are exacting, schedules are fixed, and a design has to be right before anyone can watch it run. What we hand back is RTL, verification environments and hardware documentation your own team can read, extend and maintain long after the engagement ends.
Built to be scrutinised
Systems built for long life and close scrutiny: deterministic real-time processing, sensor and signal interfaces, obsolescence-driven redesign of ageing hardware, and documentation written to survive a design review.
02Services
Four ways we plug into a programme.
Service 01
FPGA Design and Development
From specification to working logic on the board.
We write production RTL in SystemVerilog and VHDL, and carry a block from architecture and interface definition through implementation, timing closure and bring-up on real hardware. Typical work runs from high-throughput datapaths for radio and networking equipment to deterministic control and signal-processing logic on defense platforms.
In scope
- RTL design in SystemVerilog and VHDL
- Interface and protocol integration — AXI, AXI-Stream, high-speed serial
- Embedded SoC integration: processor subsystems, drivers, firmware bring-up
- Board bring-up, instrumentation and debug on real hardware
Service 02
Verification and Testing
Evidence that the design does what the specification says.
We build verification environments proportionate to the risk: constrained-random UVM testbenches where coverage has to be argued, directed and assertion-based checks where they close the question faster. The output is a regression suite your team can run, extend and put in front of a reviewer.
In scope
- UVM and constrained-random verification environments
- Directed tests, assertions and formal property checks
- Functional and code coverage closure
- Regression setup and CI integration
- Hardware-in-the-loop and lab validation
Service 03
System Architecture
Decide the hard things before the RTL is written.
Partitioning between FPGA fabric, embedded processors and software; clocking and reset strategy; interconnect, memory and bandwidth budgets; device and family selection. We take this on as a short focused engagement at the start of a programme, or as an independent review of an architecture already on the table — including feasibility and risk assessment for telecom and defense projects with fixed delivery dates.
In scope
- Hardware/software partitioning and device selection
- Clock domain and reset architecture
- Interconnect, memory and bandwidth budgeting
- Independent design review, feasibility and risk assessment
Service 04
Timing Closure and Optimisation
When the design works but the tools disagree.
We take designs that miss timing, overflow the device or draw too much power and bring them back inside budget — through pipelining and retiming, floorplanning and constraint work, resource sharing and datapath restructuring. Often that is the difference between a costly device upgrade and shipping on the part the board was already designed around.
In scope
- Timing closure and constraint (XDC/SDC) review
- Area and power reduction
- Latency and throughput tuning
- Legacy RTL review, cleanup and documentation
03Why GateLink
Why teams bring us in.
Senior engineers, no bench.
You work directly with the people writing the RTL. A boutique team means no handover layers, no junior staffing on your critical path, and a direct line to whoever is doing the work.
Telecom and defense domain depth.
We work where line rates are unforgiving and requirements have to be traceable. That context shapes how we design, how much we verify, and the evidence we hand over with the code.
Vendor-neutral, EU-based, reachable.
We work across the major FPGA vendor toolchains instead of defaulting to one, and we are based in Croatia — inside the EU, in European working hours, and available on site when a bring-up needs hands on the board.
04Contact
Ready to talk?
Tell us what you are building, where it is stuck, and when it has to ship. We will tell you honestly whether we are the right team for it — and if we are, what a first engagement would look like.
No forms and no funnel — email reaches the engineers directly.