FPGA
A Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) is an integrated circuit, that can be programmed after manufacture. The programming is done by fusing the connections within the circuit according to the required application. Once fused however, the FPGA cannot be used for a different application though there are new reconfigurable chips available now. The specification of the application to be programmed is done via a hardware description language or HDL. FPGAs have several blocks of logic circuits and interconnects among these blocks. Programming the FPGA usually consists of fusing these interconnects to suit the desired application. In order to make it programmable, there usually is some redundancy in the interconnects. This makes the speed of operation of an FPGA considerably slower than a corresponding ASIC (application specific integrated circuit) though the cost and the time to market are very small in comparison. Some of the newer FPGAs can be configured at run-time leading to the idea of a reconfigurable computer. Recent developments in technology have made FPGAs faster, smaller and more complex. Thus, what started out as a simple way to provide interfaces between different systems has developed into a device capable of handling complex tasks thereby mounting a challenge to the domination of ASICs in high performance computing applications.