Design and Implementation of a Second Generation Logic Cluster for Multi-Technology Field Programmable Gate Arrays
Vishal Chadha · OhioLink ETD Center (Ohio Library and Information Network) · 2005
In recent years, Multi-Technology applications are gaining increased acceptance due to the feasibility of large complex designs to integrate different technology components like analog devices, Memory, MEMS devices, microwave components etc on to a single silicon fabric.But the turn around time of these designs is still quite high due to the lack of prototyping devices.Though Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) have revolutionized programmable/ re-configurable digital logic technology, one limitation of current FPGAs is that the user is limited to strictly digital electronic designs.Thus, they are not suitable for applications that are not purely electronic, such as optical communications, photonic information processing systems and other multi-technology applications mentioned above.While a wide variety of multi-technology devices have been implemented, research in this area has for the most part been limited to systems built with application-specific devices.Though they are well optimized for a specific application, they lack the flexibility associated with generically re-configurable/programmable hardware and are costly with high turnaround time.So in 2002, the novel idea of a Multi-technology Field Programmable Gate Array (MT-FPGA) was proposed [1] to extend the flexibility, rapid prototyping and reusability benefits associated with conventional FPGA technology into photonic and other multi-technology domain and give rise to the development of a wider class of programmable integrated systems.While that work demonstrated that by careful design and integration of