FPGA Development Phases
The purpose of this chapter is to discuss the basic FPGA architecture and introduce the five Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) development phases. Topics dealt with are also the basic FPGA capabilities and Altera and Xilinx FPGA architecture. The layout of the generic FPGA architecture and I/O interfaces and some I/O standards has been given. Comparisons of the Altera and Xilinx I/O interface sections have been shown extensively with the Basic Logic Building Blocks of Xilinx and the series of Altera being discussed. Ability to Interconnect, Programmable Logic Device Options, advantages of using an IP core or function have been briefly dealt with. The chapter ends with the advice for the users to divide the tasks of developing FPGA designs into smaller phases of design, synthesis, simulation, implementation, and programming.