FPGA (Field-Programmable Gate Array)

An FPGA (field-programmable gate array) is an integrated circuit made of configurable logic blocks and programmable interconnects, which can be rewired after manufacturing to implement a custom digital circuit.

Why it matters

A CPU executes instructions one after another, while an FPGA becomes the circuit itself, so many operations can happen in parallel with predictable timing. It is used for prototyping chips, high-speed networking, signal processing, industrial control, and low-latency tasks such as financial trading. Because it is reprogrammable, hardware bugs can be fixed with a new configuration file, called a bitstream, instead of manufacturing a new chip.

Engineers describe designs in hardware description languages such as Verilog or VHDL, or sometimes through higher-level tools. Compared with an ASIC, an FPGA costs more per unit, is slower, and uses more power for the same function, but it has no large up-front manufacturing cost.

Example

A network appliance might use an FPGA to inspect packets at line rate. The design is loaded at power-on from flash memory. A later firmware release can load a new bitstream to add a protocol without any hardware change.

Common mistakes

• Treating FPGA design as ordinary programming; it describes hardware, not a sequence of steps.
• Choosing an FPGA for a simple task that a microcontroller handles cheaply.
• Ignoring timing constraints, which cause designs to fail at speed.

Related

• ASIC
• Arduino
• Firmware
• GPU

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