The Rise...and Further Rise of FPGAs in EW

摘要

The Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) as it applies to EW subsystems is very much like a sponge. Every new generation of FPGA, which appears ev ery 18 to 24 months, typically provides twice the logic functions of its prede cessor in the same sized package with roughly the same power consumption. It absorbs more and more of the tasks previously performed by other devices, ranging from discrete analog compo nents to digital signal processors and general-purpose processors. Relying on their massively parallel architecture, today's large FPGAs can be programmed to implement nearly every function of a basic ESM system, and when coupled with high-performance analog-to-digital and digital-to-analog converters (along with a smattering of RF components at the front end) a digital RF memory - in a single packaged device. Think of them as the Swiss Army Knife of the embed ded computing industry.