Field-Programmable Gate Arrays

Field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) have emerged as an attractive means of implementing logic circuits, providing instant manufacturing turnaround and negligible prototype costs. They hold the promise of replacing much of the VLSI market, now held by mask-programmed gate arrays. FPGAs offer an affordable solution for customized VSLI, over a wide variety of applications, and have also opened up new possibilities in designing reconfigurable digital systems. This book discusses the most important aspects of FPGAs in a textbook manner. It aims to provide the reader with a focused view of the key issues and offers detailed descriptions of commercially available FPGAs and an in-depth treatment of FPGA architecture and CAD issues that are the subject of current research. The material presented is of interest to a variety of readers, including those who are not familiar with FPGA technology but wish to be introduced to it, as well as those who already have an understanding of FPGAs but who are interested in learning about the research directions that are of current interest.