FPGA technology introduction and FPGA application fields

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FPGA technology introduction and FPGA application fields [Copy link]

Introduction to FPGA technology and FPGA application fields
FPGA introduction

　　FPGA ( Field rogrammable Gate Array ) was invented by Ross Freeman , one of the founders of Xilinx , in 1985. Although other companies claim to be the first to invent programmable logic devices PLD , the first FPGA chip XC2064 in the true sense was invented by Xilinx , which was about 20 years later than Mr. Moore proposed the famous Moore's Law . However, once FPGA was invented, the subsequent development speed was faster than most people could imagine. In recent years , FPGA has always led the advanced technology. Advantages of FPGA 1 ) High-speed communication interface design. FPGA can be used for high-speed signal processing. Generally, if the AD sampling rate is high and the data rate is high, FPGA is needed to process the data, such as extracting and filtering the data, reducing the data rate, and making the signal easy to process, transmit, and store. 2 ) Digital signal processing. Including image processing, radar signal processing, medical signal processing, etc. The advantage is good real-time performance, using area for speed, which is much faster than CPU . 3 ) Greater parallelism. This is mainly achieved through two technologies: concurrency and pipelining. Concurrency refers to the repeated allocation of computing resources so that multiple modules can perform independent calculations at the same time. Basic features of FPGA 1 ) Using FPGA to design ASIC circuits, users can get suitable chips without having to invest in production. 2 ) FPGA can be used as a pilot sample for other fully customized or semi-customized ASIC circuits. 3 ) FPGA has a rich set of triggers and I / O pins. 4 ) FPGA is one of the devices with the shortest design cycle, lowest development cost and lowest risk in ASIC circuits. 5 ) FPGA uses high-speed CHMOS technology, low power consumption, and is compatible with CMOS and TTL levels. 　　It can be said that FPGA chips are one of the best choices for small-batch systems to improve system integration and reliability. So what are the application areas of FPGA ? What are the main directions? Let's follow the editor to learn more about it. Three main directions of FPGA application 　　The first direction, which is also the traditional direction, is mainly used for high-speed interface circuit design of communication equipment. This direction mainly uses FPGA to process high-speed interface protocols and complete high-speed data transmission and exchange. Such applications usually require the use of FPGAs with high-speed transceiver interfaces . At the same time, designers are required to understand high-speed interface circuit design and high-speed digital circuit board level design, have EMC/EMI design knowledge, and have a good foundation in analog circuits. They need to solve the signal integrity problems generated during high-speed transceiver processing. The earliest and most widely used application of FPGA is in the field of communications. On the one hand, the communication field requires high-speed communication protocol processing methods, and on the other hand, the communication protocol is modified at any time, which is not suitable for making special chips. Therefore, FPGAs that can flexibly change functions have become the first choice. So far, more than half of FPGA applications are also in the communications industry. 　　The second direction can be called digital signal processing or mathematical calculation, because to a large extent this direction has greatly exceeded the scope of signal processing. For example, as early as 2006 , I heard that the Americans used FPGAs for financial data analysis, and later I saw cases of using FPGAs for medical data analysis. In this direction, FPGA designers are required to have a certain mathematical foundation, be able to understand and improve more complex mathematical algorithms, and use various resources inside the FPGA to turn them into actual operation circuits. At present, the real practical applications are in the fields of wireless signal processing, channel coding and decoding, and image signal processing in the field of communications. Research in other fields is underway. The main reason why there is not a lot of practical application is that people studying finance and medicine do not understand this thing. However, I have recently found that many doctors in electronic engineering and computer science in Europe and the United States have transferred to the financial industry to carry out financial signal processing. I believe that with the increase in the number of people transferring, the mathematical calculation function of FPGA in other fields will be better utilized, and I am also interested in doing some research in these areas. However, I am afraid that people studying finance and medicine in China rarely use mathematics, let alone using FPGA to help them complete mathematical operations . This issue can only be discussed later.
　　
　　
　　
　　
　　　　
　　
　　
　　
　　
　　

　　　　


　　 The third direction is the so-called SOPC direction. In fact, strictly speaking, this is already within the scope of FPGA design. It is just the underlying hardware environment of an embedded system built using the FPGA platform, and then the designer mainly develops embedded software on it. The design of the FPGA itself is quite rare. But if it involves the need to do special algorithm acceleration in FPGA , the knowledge of the second direction is actually needed, and if it is necessary to design a special interface circuit, the knowledge of the first direction is needed. At present, the development of SOPC is actually far less than the first and second directions. The main reason is that SOPC is mainly based on FPGA , or a " soft " processor is implemented in the resources inside the FPGA , or a processor core is embedded in the FPGA . But most embedded designs are centered on software. Judging from the current hardware development situation, the interfaces in most cases have been standardized, and it does not require such a large FPGA logic resource to design too complex interfaces. Moreover, at present, SOPC- related development tools are still very imperfect, while various embedded processor development tools represented by ARM have long been popular. Most SOC chips with ARM as the core provide most standard interfaces, and a large number of series of single-chip microcomputers / embedded processors provide hardware acceleration circuits required by related industries. There are indeed few occasions where customized hardware is needed. Usually, only in some special industries will there be a very urgent demand in this regard. At present, Xilinx has embedded the hard core of ARMcortex-A9 into FPGA , which will greatly promote the development of embedded in the future. However, don't forget that many old 8-bit microcontrollers are still in the embedded field. The value of embedded is not mainly reflected by the difference in hardware but more by the difference in software. Application fields of FPGA 1. Data acquisition and interface logic field 1. Application of FPGA in data acquisition field　　Since most of the 　　signals in nature are analog signals, the general signal processing system must include the data acquisition function. The usual implementation method is to use the A/D converter to convert the analog signal into a digital signal and send it to the processor, such as using a single-chip microcomputer ( MCU ) or a digital signal processor ( DSP ) for calculation and processing. 　　For low-speed A/D and D/A converters, a standard SPI interface can be used to communicate with the MCU or DSP . However, high-speed A/D and D/A conversion chips, such as video decoders or encoders , cannot be directly interfaced with general MCUs or DSPs . In this case, FPGA can complete the bonding logic function of data acquisition. 2. Application of FPGA in the field of logic interface 　　In actual product design, data communication with PC is required in many cases . For example, the collected data is sent to PC for processing, or the processed results are sent to PC for display. The interfaces for PC to communicate with external systems are relatively rich, such as ISA , PCI , PCI Express , PS/2 , USB , etc. 　　Traditional designs often require dedicated interface chips, such as PCI interface chips. If more interfaces are required, more peripheral chips are required, and the size and power consumption are relatively large. After adopting the FPGA solution, the interface logic can be implemented inside the FPGA , which greatly simplifies the design of peripheral circuits. 　　In modern electronic product design, memory has been widely used, such as SDRAM , SRAM , Flash , etc. These memories have their own characteristics and uses. Reasonable selection of storage types can achieve the best cost-effectiveness of the product. Since the functions of FPGA can be completely designed by yourself, controllers of various storage interfaces can be implemented. 3. Application of FPGA in the field of level interface 　　In addition to TTL , COMS
　　
　　

　　


　　



　　
In addition to the interface level, new level standards such as LVDS , HSTL , GTL/GTL+ , and SSTL are gradually being adopted by many electronic products. For example, the LCD screen driver interface is generally an LVDS interface, the digital I/O is generally an LVTTL level, and the DDR SDRAM level is generally HSTL . 　　In such a mixed level environment, if the interface is implemented using traditional level conversion devices, the circuit complexity will increase. Using the characteristics of FPGA supporting multi-level coexistence can greatly simplify the design scheme and reduce the design risk. 　　2. High-performance digital signal processing field 　　Wireless communication, software radio, high-definition image editing and processing and other fields have put forward extremely high requirements on the amount of calculation required for signal processing. The traditional solution is generally to use multiple DSPs in parallel to form a multi-processor system to meet the needs. 　　However, the main problem brought by the multi-processor system is that the design complexity and system power consumption are greatly increased, and the system stability is affected. FPGA supports parallel computing, and its density and performance are constantly improving. It can replace the traditional multi- DSP solution in many fields. 　　For example, the implementation of the high-definition video encoding algorithm H.264 . Using TI 's 1GHz DSP chip requires four chips, while using Altera 's StraTIxII EP2S130 chip only requires one chip to complete the same task. The implementation process of FPGA is similar to the front-end design of ASIC chips, which is conducive to the back-end design of the chip. 　　III. Other application fields 　　In addition to the above application fields, FPGA also has a wide range of applications in other fields. 　　( 1 ) Automotive electronics, such as gateway controller / car PC , telematics system. 　　( 2 ) Military field, such as security communications, radar and sonar, electronic warfare. 　　( 3 ) Test and measurement field, such as communication testing and monitoring, semiconductor automatic test equipment, general instrumentation. 　　( 4 ) Consumer product field, such as display , projector, digital TV and set-top box, home network. 　　( 5 ) Medical field, such as software radio, electrotherapy , life science.

　　

D二少爷ONG

The FPGAs I used for a year were basically customized products. Later, the company stopped doing this. I just started to get started, and now I am going to waste my time.

ayay33

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Fred_1977

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