Processors & Compute
What is FPGA?
Field-Programmable Gate Array
An FPGA (field-programmable gate array) is a chip whose digital logic can be reconfigured after manufacturing, letting engineers implement custom hardware.
FPGAs shine where a fixed processor is too slow or too rigid — real-time signal processing, custom protocols, and hardware-accelerated AI. They are programmed in HDLs such as Verilog and VHDL.
How an FPGA works
An FPGA is a chip full of configurable logic blocks, memory blocks, DSP slices and I/O that can be wired together after manufacture. Engineers describe the circuit in a hardware description language (Verilog or VHDL) or high-level synthesis, and the tools compile it into a bitstream that configures the chip.
When to use an FPGA
FPGAs fit jobs that need massive parallelism or deterministic, nanosecond-level timing: high-speed data acquisition, video and image pipelines, custom interfaces, motor control, software-defined radio and edge AI acceleration. They are also used to prototype ASICs. For simple control tasks an MCU is cheaper and lower power.
Main FPGA families
AMD (Xilinx) Artix, Kintex, Zynq and Versal; Altera (formerly part of Intel) Cyclone and Agilex; Lattice iCE40, ECP5, Nexus and Avant; Microchip PolarFire. SoC FPGAs such as Zynq combine Arm processor cores with programmable logic.
FPGA FAQ
- What does FPGA stand for?
- FPGA stands for field-programmable gate array.
- FPGA vs microcontroller?
- A microcontroller runs software instructions one after another; an FPGA is reconfigured to become custom hardware that runs many operations in parallel.