Forum Discussion

Altera_Forum's avatar
Altera_Forum
Icon for Honored Contributor rankHonored Contributor
14 years ago

Pro& Cons using FPGA???

Hello everyone,

Can someone pointed out to me what are the pros and cons using fpga compare to microcontroller?

What I know is fpga execute our program in paralel order and uc execute the program sequentially. Because of that reason, I think fpga tends to make less delay compare to uc. It is needed for example when I would like to operate multiple motor which I need accuracy.

FPGA convert our hdl later into some sort of gate array but the uc use only bunch of instruction.

(please someone correct me if I'm wrong)

What are other pro& con using fpga compared to uc?

Thank you everyone.

11 Replies

  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
    Icon for Honored Contributor rankHonored Contributor

    --- Quote Start ---

    What do you mean when you said "reconfigurable"? I think uc is also reconfigurable.

    --- Quote End ---

    Not the same thing, not even close.

    Programming an FPGA is much like designing a digital integrated circuit:

    You draw* the circuit using logic gates (AND, OR, etc) and flip-flops and some other bits and pieces.

    Then you use the FPGA software to synthetize and map the circuit you draw into a FPGA configuration and when you load the configuration into the FPGA, it will behave as the circuit you draw.

    * Or you describe the behavior of the circuit in Verilog/VHDL