Field programmable gate arrays. A cheaper way of customizing product prototypes

Advances in VLSI technology have brought very complex digital systems onto a very small area of silicon. However, the design cycle times associated with the conventional VLSI designs have called for a technology that will support very rapid system prototyping. Also, the non-recurring engineering (NRE) costs associated with existing VLSI technologies are very high. An ideal design style should support rapid prototyping at almost no or very nominal NRE costs. FPGA is an attempt in this direction. FPGAs have a potential for matching both speed and density of mask programmed gate arrays (MPGAs). It is expected that more and more digital designs will be built on FPGAs, and FPGA based designs will outnumber the MPGA based designs in the near future. The author begins by discussing the nature of FPGAs and their architecture (with design tools). The author goes on to discuss custom computing.<>