On Fri, 25 Feb 2005 10:44:49 -0800, you wrote:

>> >> I was wondering if anyone had an pointers to some sort of
>> >> "FPGA programming for dummies" tutorials?
>> >
>> > This one is excellent:
>> >
>> > http://www.fpga4fun.com
>>
>
>
>I am sorry an even dummier question, but what is the utility of fpgas? Are
>they complemental to microcontrollers? Why would I want to use one?
>
>If they are volatile like RAM, then I can only guess that if I was to
>include one in a design, then I'd have to have something (a microcontroller)
>to program them?

Some are flash based. SRAM ones are configured from a serial memory device, or from a host
microcontroller if available.

The main advantages of FPGAs are speed - can be several hundred MHz, large numbers of IO (there are
FPGAs with >1000 pins!) and the ability to do multiple things simultaneously, e.g. parallel
processing of wide data paths.

They are often used in conjuction with micros, as there are many things that are more efficiently
done in software. You can also incorporate micros within the FPGA itself (e.g. Xilinx picoblaze and
Microblaze). Atmel make a combined  AVR and FPGA on one chip.     

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