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fpga: Definition and Recommended Links

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A field-programmable gate array is a semiconductor device containing programmable logic components called 'logic blocks', and programmable interconnects. Logic blocks can be programmed to perform the function of basic logic gates such as AND, and XOR, or more complex combinational functions such as decoders or mathematical functions. In most FPGAs, the logic blocks also include memory elements, which may be simple flip-flops or more complete blocks of memory

A hierarchy of programmable interconnects allows logic blocks to be interconnected as needed by the system designer, somewhat like a one-chip programmable breadboard. Logic blocks and interconnects can be programmed by the customer or designer, after the FPGA is manufactured, to implement any logical function—hence the name 'field-programmable'.

Source: Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fpga)

other great electronics sites:ee toolbox site

• • fpga
    • A field-programmable gate array is a semiconductor device containing programmable logic components called 'logic blocks', and programmable interconnects. Logic blocks can be programmed to perform the function of basic logic gates such as AND, and XOR, or more complex combinational functions such as decoders or mathematical functions. In most FPGAs, the logic blocks also include memory elements, which may be simple flip-flops or more complete blocks of memory

      A hierarchy of programmable interconnects allows logic blocks to be interconnected as needed by the system designer, somewhat like a one-chip programmable breadboard. Logic blocks and interconnects can be programmed by the customer or designer, after the FPGA is manufactured, to implement any logical function—hence the name 'field-programmable'.

      Source: Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fpga)

      (Note: The Electronic Engineers Toolbox provides an alternative set of featured links for this word at http://www.cera2.com/fpga.htm)

      Featured Links:

      Avnet Electronics Marketing Introduces Low Cost Spartan-3A FPGA Evaluation Kit

      Avnet Electronics Marketing Americas, the electronics distribution components group for the Americas region of Avnet, Inc., announces the release of a $39 Xilinx® Spartan®-3A Evaluation Kit. Populated with a Xilinx Spartan-3A 400A Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA), the kit is a cost-effective solution for designers evaluating or testing their design targeting low-cost, high-volume applications. Designers can use the Spartan-3A kit for...
      http://www.avnet.com

      Curtiss-Wright Announces New Board Level Products Supporting Xilinx Virtex-5 FXT FPGAs

      Curtiss-Wright Controls Embedded Computing, a leading designer and manufacturer of commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) VME, VPX and mezzanine products for the defense and aerospace market, has announced that it will support the new Xilinx Virtex®-5 FXT field programmable gate array (FPGA) platform with a range of rugged board level products. Curtiss-Wright is one of a select group of early access Xilinx customers to evaluate the newest...
      http://www.cwcembedded.com/0/62/499.html

      Xilinx Unveils Embedded Development Environment and Ecosystem Supporting New Virtex-5 FXT FPGAs

      Xilinx, Inc. (Nasdaq: XLNX) today announced its embedded development environment of tools and ecosystem technologies for supporting innovative system-on-chip designs targeting the company's newest 65nm Virtex(R)-5 FXT FPGAs. Version 10.1 of the Embedded Development Kit (EDK), which delivers the award-winning Xilinx(R) Platform Studio embedded tool suite (XPS), includes new high-performance processing design capabilities and enables immediate...
      http://press.xilinx.com

      Avnet Memec Launches Actel Ultra-Low Power SpeedWay Design Workshop

      Avnet Memec, a specialty semiconductor division of Avnet Electronics Marketing an operating group of Avnet, Inc. (NYSE: AVT) has launched the Actel Ultra-Low Power SpeedWay Design Workshop. The new, in-depth, how to workshops provide hands-on experience to designers interested in leveraging Actel’s 5-microwatt (W) IGLOO® field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) for battery-operated and portable applications. Avnet’s Actel Ultra-Low
      http://www.actel.com/company/press/files/partner_avnet_speedway_jun08.pdf

      Aldec Releases Riviera-PRO 2008.06 HDL Simulator. Including New Assertions Waveform Viewer...

      Aldec, Inc., announced the release of Riviera-PRO 2008.06, a behavioral, structural and mixed HDL language simulator for multi-million gate ASIC and FPGA designs. Riviera-PRO 2008.06 includes Verilog® simulation performance enhancements, increased SystemVerilog support, seamless SystemC/C/C++ and HDL co-debugging in common environment and new support for SVA and PSL assertions in the Waveform Viewer. Riviera-PRO supports System Level...
      http://www.aldec.com

      ARM7-based MCU with FPGA Interface to Multi-layer AHB

      Atmel® Corporation has announced the AT91CAP7E, the industry's first ARM7-based MCU with a direct FPGA interface. The AT91CAP7E is a standard microcontroller with an FPGA interface that makes the FPGA look and work like it is on the internal bus of the MCU. It provides customers with a two-chip, no-NRE, FPGA-plus ARM7 solution and offers an engineering-free migration path to a lower cost, and a lower power customizable MCU. The CAP7E...
      http://www.atmel.com

      FPGA-Guide.com

      This page offers to you the first (and i think biggest) vendor-independent FPGA-selector-guide for all known FPGA and CPLD-families of the last years. The devices are preselected by gate-complexity and year of introduction. At the first glance you can see max. usable gates, flipflops, speed, RAM, clock-nets, 5V-tolerance, I/Os and many more.
      http://www.fpga-guide.com/

      Actel Ices Competition With New Low-Power, I/O-Optimized FPGA Family

      Broadening its extensive portfolio of low-power programmable solutions for power-conscious designs, Actel Corporation has introduced IGLOO® PLUS, a new family of low-power field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) with the industry's best power-, area-, logic- and feature-per-I/O ratios in a programmable device. The new 5 microwatt (5µW) I/O-optimized IGLOO PLUS family also offers up to 64 percent more I/Os than the company's award-winning...
      http://www.actel.com/company/press/2008/3/17/

      Xilinx XtremeDSP Solution Development Tools Deliver New Levels of DSP and ESL Design Capabilities

      Xilinx, Inc. (Nasdaq: XLNX), the world's leading provider of programmable solutions, today announced the availability of versions 10.1 of the System Generator for DSP tool and the AccelDSP(TM) synthesis tool, the industry-leading development environment delivered by the Xilinx XtremeDSP(TM) solution. With support for the new Virtex(R)-5 FXT platform, the newest release delivers the industry's first ESL design methodology to enable a direct...
      http://press.xilinx.com

      comp.arch.fpga

      FPGA-related discussions. Second link points to the newsgroup archive.
      news:comp.arch.fpga

      Explanation: these links are provided as part of our EE glossary project, which seeks to identify the most prominent keywords in embedded systems, embedded software, realtime and rtos, dsp (digital signal processing), system-on-a-chip, microprocessors and microcontrollers, and other constituent elements for embedded systems. While we seek to keep most of the links up-to-date, the user is refered to other primary electronic-based search sites such as: cera2.com, embedded.com, or EDN Magazine. If you have any suggestions of links or definitions, please email!

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