Field-Programmable Gate Arrays

by Stephen D. Brown, Robert J. Francis, Jonathan Rose

Field-Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) have emerged as an attractive means of implementing logic circuits, providing instant manufacturing turnaround and negligible prototype costs. They hold the promise of replacing much of the VLSI market now held by mask-programmed gate arrays. FPGAs offer an affordable solution for customized VLSI, over a wide variety of applications, and have also opened up new possibilities in designing reconfigurable digital systems.
Field-Programmable Gate Arrays discusses the most important aspects of FPGAs in a textbook manner. It provides the reader with a focused view of the key issues, using a consistent notation and style of presentation. It provides detailed descriptions of commercially available FPGAs and an in-depth treatment of the FPGA architecture and CAD issues that are the subjects of current research.
The material presented is of interest to a variety of readers, including those who are not familiar with FPGA technology, but wish to be introduced to it, as well as those who already have an understanding of FPGAs, but who are interested in learning about the research directions that are of current interest.

Hardcover

First published June 30, 1992

About the author

Stephen Brown received the Ph.D and M.A.Sc degrees in Electrical Engineering from the University of Toronto, and his B.A.Sc degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of New Brunswick. He joined the University of Toronto faculty in 1992, where he now holds the rank of Professor in the Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering. He also holds the position of Architect at the Altera Toronto Technology Center, a world-leading research and development site for CAD software and FPGA architectures, where he is involved in research activities and is the Director of the Altera University Program.

His research interests include field-programmable VLSI technology, CAD algorithms, and computer architecture. He won the Canadian Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Councils 1992 Doctoral Prize for the best Ph.D. thesis in Canada.

He has won multiple awards for excellence in teaching electrical engineering, computer engineering, and computer science courses. He is a coauthor of more than 60 scientific research papers and three textbooks: Fundamentals of Digital Logic with Verilog Design , Fundamentals of Digital Logic with VHDL Design , and Field-Programmable Gate Arrays .