Introduction to Field Programmable Gate Arrays
Abstract
Many field programmable gate array (FPGA)-based solutions exist for wireless base station designs, image processing and radar systems. In the early days, FPGAs were seen as glue logic chips used to plug components together to form complex systems. FPGAs then increasingly came to be seen as complete systems in themselves. The increase in complexity due to technology evolution meant that there was a growing gap in the scope offered by current FPGA technology and the designer's ability to develop solutions efficiently using currently available tools. The problem is not as severe in FPGA implementation as the designer does not have to deal with sub-micrometer design issues. However, a number of key issues exist: understanding how to map digital signal processing (DSP) functionality into FPGA, design languages, development and use of IP cores, and design flow. These represent the challenges that this book aims to address and provide the main focus for the work that is presented.