FPGAs add a flexible dimension to digital design

摘要

Logic design at the gate or module level for discrete implementations has effectively gone away, with the exception of buffers and analog designs. The move to micros has turned much of today's system design into large chips and software. Custom logic is still needed, but it often resides in ASICs, complex programmable logic devices (CPLDs), and FPGAs. ASICs aren't a bad choice if you have gobs of money and time, along with an engineering team. But if you need a less ambitious and possibly more flexible solution, then CPLDs and FPGAs are your likely choices. Development tools for these platforms as well as the need to delve into hardware definition languages (HDLs) like Verilog or VHDL, though, often turned determined developers away to other, more familiar tools.