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iused to envy CPU designers—the lucky engineers with access to expensivetools and fabs. But, field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) have madecustom-processor and integratedsystem design much more accessible.20–50-MHz FPGA CPUs are perfect for many embedded applications.They can support custom instructions and function units, and can bereconfigured to enhance system-on-chip (SoC) development, testing, debugging,and tuning. Of course, FPGA systems offer high integration, shorttime-to-market, low NRE costs, and easy field updates of entire systems.FPGA CPUs may also provide new answers to old problems. Considerone system designed by Philip Freidin. During self-test, its FPGA is configured as a CPU and it runs the tests. Later the FPGA is reconfigured fornormal operation as a hardwired signal processing datapath. The ephemeralCPU is free and saves money by eliminating test interfaces.
