This is expected by the company to translate into dramatic increases in performance in terms of speed, power consumption, size, weight, cost, and reliability. Field Programmable Gate Array. A programmable computer chip comprised of a sea of open gates that can be reconfigured to perform varied computational tasks. An FPGA is a highly-tuned hardware circuit that can be partially or completely changed while it is operating, i.e., rewired in real time. FPGAs consist of arrays of configurable logic blocks that implement the logical functions of gates.
Logic gates are like switches with multiple inputs and a single output.
Several firms, including Xilinx, Motorola, and Altera, have developed FPGAs with a million or more programmable gates. In most conventional computer hardware today the logical functions of gates are fixed and cannot be modified. In FPGAs both the logic functions performed within the logic blocks and the connections between the blocks can be changed by sending signals to the chip. These blocks are structurally similar to the gate arrays used in some ASICs. However, whereas standard gate arrays are configured during manufacture, the configurable logic blocks in FPGAs are open and uncommitted when they leave the factory and until placed in operation.