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Altera_Forum
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15 years ago

FPGAs and CPUs ??

Ok i know that an FPGA is way faster in comparison to a cpu or a microprocessor but I'd like to know why? and giving the fact that FPGAs are faster than CPUs what are the advantages and disadvantages...
Altera_Forum's avatar
Altera_Forum
Icon for Honored Contributor rankHonored Contributor
15 years ago

If you mean by why? in the sense of low level difference then obviously a processor runs fetch-execute cycles per instruction. FPGA or ASIC is direct logic implementation that does not have any such cycles.

If a processor system can run parallel channels to offset the cycle overheads then it approaches an FPGA.

remember also that fpga can be used to design dedicated processors to implement the instructions set directly hardwired without much cycles