Architecting and Building High-Speed SoCs

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Introducing FPGA Devices and SoCs

In this chapter, we will begin by describing what the field-programmable gate array (FPGA) technology is and its evolution since it was first invented by Xilinx in the 1980s. We will cover the electronics industry gap that FPGA devices cover, their adoption, and their ease of use for implementing custom digital hardware functions and systems. Then, we will describe the high-speed FPGA-based system-on-a-chip (SoC) and its evolution since it was introduced as a solution by the major FPGA vendors in the early 2000s. Finally, we will look at how various applications classify SoCs, specifically for FPGA implementations.

In this chapter, we’re going to cover the following main topics:

• Xilinx FPGA devices overview ...