Modern Component Families and Circuit Block Design

Chapter 10

Programmable Logic Devices

M. Kalyanapala; Nirupa Rubasingam

10.1 Introduction

The ever-rising demand for huge amounts of data to move faster and faster through processors and networks has resulted in an endless sea of logic devices. To accomplish these tasks, semiconductor technology is moving toward speedier, more powerful processors and denser, more complex “glue chips” (devices that surround processors performing control logic functions) to manipulate information. The breadth of product offerings from the ASIC and programmable logic device vendors allows designers to select the device that is most cost effective for a target application. However, confusing terminology used by manufacturers (Maxfield, 1996) and various other reasons ...