Programmable logic devices – key components for today’s and tomorrow’s electronic-based systems

Since their introduction in the 1970s, Programmable Logic Devices (PLDs) evolved from implementing small glue-logic designs to large, configurable multi-processor Systems-on-Chip (SoC). Today’s most prominent PLD technology, known as FPGA (Field-Programmable Gate Array), is used in an increasing number of application domains, such as the telecom industry, the automotive electronics sector or automation technology, and recent market studies expect a continuous demand for these sophisticated microelectronic devices in the future. For small and medium enterprises and/or SME-dominated countries like Austria, FPGAs can provide access to VLSI (Very Large Scale Integration) technology by avoiding the immense NRE (Non-Recurring Engineering) costs of ASICs (Application-Specific Integrated Circuits). This work outlines how today’s and future electronic-based systems can benefit from FPGA technology. Trends, tools and design flows will be explained as well as research challenges that are currently investigated within two public funded R&D projects at the University of Applied Sciences Technikum Wien.