%0 Journal Article %1 BaconRabbahShukla13cacm %A Bacon, David F. %A Rabbah, Rodric %A Shukla, Sunil %D 2013 %J Communications of the ACM %K 01841 acm paper embedded software engineering device development %N 4 %P 56--63 %R 10.1145/2436256.2436271 %T FPGA Programming for the Masses %V 56 %X The programmability of FPGAs must improve if they are to be part of mainstream computing. When looking at how hardware influences computing performance, we have general-purpose processors (GPPs) on one end of the spectrum and application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) on the other. Processors are highly programmable but often inefficient in terms of power and performance. ASICs implement a dedicated and fixed function and provide the best power and performance characteristics, but any functional change requires a complete (and extremely expensive) re-spinning of the circuits. Fortunately, several architectures exist between these two extremes. Programmable logic devices (PLDs) are one such example, providing the best of both worlds. They are closer to the hardware and can be reprogrammed. The most prominent example of a PLD is a field programmable gate array (FPGA). It consists of look-up tables (LUTs), which are used to implement combinational logic; and flip-flops (FFs), which are used to implement sequential logic.

@article{BaconRabbahShukla13cacm, abstract = {The programmability of FPGAs must improve if they are to be part of mainstream computing. When looking at how hardware influences computing performance, we have general-purpose processors (GPPs) on one end of the spectrum and application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) on the other. Processors are highly programmable but often inefficient in terms of power and performance. ASICs implement a dedicated and fixed function and provide the best power and performance characteristics, but any functional change requires a complete (and extremely expensive) re-spinning of the circuits. Fortunately, several architectures exist between these two extremes. Programmable logic devices (PLDs) are one such example, providing the best of both worlds. They are closer to the hardware and can be reprogrammed. The most prominent example of a PLD is a field programmable gate array (FPGA). It consists of look-up tables (LUTs), which are used to implement combinational logic; and flip-flops (FFs), which are used to implement sequential logic.}, added-at = {2013-04-03T16:02:39.000+0200}, author = {Bacon, David F. and Rabbah, Rodric and Shukla, Sunil}, biburl = {https://www.bibsonomy.org/bibtex/27147872fdd95a91490b84b19a9810f57/flint63}, doi = {10.1145/2436256.2436271}, file = {ACM Digital Library:2013/BaconRabbahShukla13cacm.pdf:PDF}, groups = {public}, interhash = {864ba297c1ec122f8fa4c9dcb5b17e21}, intrahash = {7147872fdd95a91490b84b19a9810f57}, issn = {0001-0782}, journal = {Communications of the ACM}, keywords = {01841 acm paper embedded software engineering device development}, month = {#apr#}, number = 4, pages = {56--63}, timestamp = {2018-04-16T11:36:51.000+0200}, title = {{FPGA} Programming for the Masses}, username = {flint63}, volume = 56, year = 2013 }