Wikipedia:
A
field-programmable gate array (
FPGA) is an
integrated circuit designed to be configured by a customer or a designer after manufacturing – hence the term "
field-programmable". The FPGA configuration is generally specified using a
hardware description language (HDL), similar to that used for an
application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC).
Circuit diagrams were previously used to specify the configuration, but this is increasingly rare due to the advent of
electronic design automation tools.
FPGAs contain an array of
programmablelogic blocks, and a hierarchy of "reconfigurable interconnects" that allow the blocks to be "wired together", like many logic gates that can be inter-wired in different configurations.
Logic blocks can be configured to perform complex
combinational functions, or merely simple
logic gates like
AND and
XOR. In most FPGAs, logic blocks also include
memory elements, which may be simple
flip-flops or more complete blocks of memory.
[1] Many FPGAs can be reprogrammed to implement different
logic functions,
[2] allowing flexible
reconfigurable computing as performed in
computer software. FPGAs have a remarkable role in the embedded system development due to capability
[3] to start system software (SW) development simultaneously with hardware (HW), enable system performance simulations at a very early phase of the development, and allow various system partitioning (SW and HW) trials and iterations before final freezing of the system architecture.
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