Quantifying And Exploring The Gap Between Fpgas And Asics

Field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), which are pre-fabricated, programmable digital integrated circuits (ICs), provide easy access to state-of-the-art integrated circuit process technology, and in doing so, democratize this technology of our time. This book is about comparing the qualities of FPGA – their speed performance, area and power consumption, against custom-fabricated ICs, and exploring ways of mitigating their de ciencies. This work began as a question that many have asked, and few had the resources to answer – how much worse is an FPGA compared to a custom-designed chip? As we dealt with that question, we found that it was far more dif cult to answer than we anticipated, but that the results were rich basic insights on fundamental understandings of FPGA architecture. It also encouraged us to nd ways to leverage those insights to seek ways to make FPGA technology better, which is what the second half of the book is about. While the question “How much worse is an FPGA than an ASIC?” has been a constant sub-theme of all research on FPGAs, it was posed most directly, some time around May 2004, by Professor Abbas El Gamal from Stanford University to us – he was working on a 3D FPGA, and was wondering if any real measurements had been made in this kind of comparison. Shortly thereafter we took it up and tried to answer in a serious way.

This book provides readers with invaluable overviews and updates of the most important topics in the radiation-effects field, enabling them to face significant challenges in the quest for the insertion of ever-higher density and higher performance electronic components in satellite systems. Readers will benefit from the up-to-date coverage of the various primary (classical) sub-areas of radiation effects, including the space and terrestrial radiation environments, basic mechanisms of total ionizing dose, digital and analog single-event transients, basic mechanisms of single-event effects, system-level SEE analysis, device-level, circuit-level and system-level hardening approaches, and radiation hardness assurance. Additionally, this book includes in-depth discussions of several newer areas of investigation, and current challenges to the radiation effects community, such as radiation hardening by design, the use of Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) components in space missions, CubeSats and SmallSats, the use of recent generation FPGA’s in space, and new approaches for radiation testing and validation. The authors provide essential background and fundamentals, in addition to information on the most recent advances and challenges in the sub-areas of radiation effects. Provides a concise introduction to the fundamentals of radiation effects, latest research results, and new test methods and procedures; Discusses the radiation effects and mitigation solutions for advanced integrated circuits and systems designed to operate in harsh radiation environments; Includes coverage of the impact of Small Satellites in the space industry.

This comprehensive textbook on the field programmable gate array (FPGA) covers its history, fundamental knowledge, architectures, device technologies, computer-aided design technologies, design tools, examples of application, and future trends. Programmable logic devices represented by FPGAs have been rapidly developed in recent years and have become key electronic devices used in most IT products. This book provides both complete introductions suitable for students and beginners, and high-level techniques useful for engineers and researchers in this field. Differently developed from usual integrated circuits, the FPGA has unique structures, design methodologies, and application techniques. Allowing programming by users, the device can dramatically reduce the rising cost of development in advanced semiconductor chips. The FPGA is now driving the most advanced semiconductor processes and is an all-in-one platform combining memory, CPUs, and various peripheral interfaces. This book introduces the FPGA from various aspects for readers of different levels. Novice learners can acquire a fundamental knowledge of the FPGA, including its history, from Chapter 1; the first half of Chapter 2; and Chapter 4. Professionals who are already familiar with the device will gain a deeper understanding of the structures and design methodologies from Chapters 3 and 5. Chapters 6–8 also provide advanced techniques and cutting-edge applications and trends useful for professionals. Although the first parts are mainly suitable for students, the advanced sections of the book will be valuable for professionals in acquiring an in-depth understanding of the FPGA to maximize the performance of the device.

System Design for Telecommunication Gateways provides a thorough review of designing telecommunication network equipment based on the latest hardware designs and software methods available on the market. Focusing on high-end efficient designs that challenge all aspects of the system architecture, this book helps readers to understand a broader view of the system design, analyze all its most critical components, and select the parts that best fit a particular application. In many cases new technology trends, potential future developments, system flexibility and capability extensions are outlined in preparation for the longevity typical for products in the industry. Key features: Combines software and hardware aspects of the system design. Defines components and services supported by open-source and commercial basic and extended software platforms, including operating systems, middleware, security, routing, management layer and more. Focuses on disruptive technologies. Provides guidelines for developing software architectures based on multi-threaded, multi-process, multi-instance, multi-core, multi-chip, multi-blade and multi-chassis designs. Covers a number of advanced high-speed interconnect and fabric interface technologies and their commercial implementations. Presents different system form factors from compact pizza-box styles to medium and large bladed systems, including IBM BladeCenter, ATCA and microTCA-based chassis. Describes different mezzanine cards, such as PMC, PrPMC, XMC, AMC and others.

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 VLSI, over a wide variety of applications, and have also opened up new possibilities in designing reconfigurable digital systems. Field-Programmable Gate Arrays discusses the most important aspects of FPGAs in a textbook manner. It provides the reader with a focused view of the key issues, using a consistent notation and style of presentation. It provides detailed descriptions of commercially available FPGAs and an in-depth treatment of the FPGA architecture and CAD issues that are the subjects 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.

Based on the popular Artech House classic, Digital Communication Systems Engineering with Software-Defined Radio, this book provides a practical approach to quickly learning the software-defined radio (SDR) concepts needed for work in the field. This up-to-date volume guides readers on how to quickly prototype wireless designs using SDR for real-world testing and experimentation. This book explores advanced wireless communication techniques such as OFDM, LTE, WLA, and hardware targeting. Readers will gain an understanding of the core concepts behind wireless hardware, such as the radio frequency front-end, analog-to-digital and digital-to-analog converters, as well as various processing technologies. Moreover, this volume includes chapters on timing estimation, matched filtering, frame synchronization message decoding, and source coding. The orthogonal frequency division multiplexing is explained and details about HDL code generation and deployment are provided. The book concludes with coverage of the WLAN toolbox with OFDM beacon reception and the LTE toolbox with downlink reception. Multiple case studies are provided throughout the book. Both MATLAB and Simulink source code are included to assist readers with their projects in the field.