Design Recipes for FPGAs, 2nd Edition

Chapter 2

An FPGA Primer

Abstract

This chapter introduces some of the key concepts in FPGA technology and provides an overview of some of the terminology in current use. The underlying architecture of typical FPGAs is introduced, with examples of development kits and hardware commonly available.

Keywords

FPGA

Development kits

Complex logic blocks

2.1 Introduction

This section is an introduction to the Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) platform for those unfamiliar with the technology. It is useful when designing hardware to understand that the context that the hardware description language models (VHDL or Verilog) is important and relevant to the ultimate design.

2.2 FPGA Evolution

Since the inception of digital logic hardware in the 1970s, ...