Using FPGAs in real-time embedded system designs

As we saw in the Elements of FPGAs section of Chapter 1, Architecting High-Performance Embedded Systems, a typical FPGA device contains a large number of lookup tables, flip-flops, block RAM elements, DSP slices, and other components. While it can be instructive to understand the detailed capabilities of each of these components, such concerns are not necessarily informative during the FPGA development process. The most important constraint to keep in mind is that a specific FPGA part number contains a finite number of each of these elements, and a design cannot exceed those limits when targeted at that particular FPGA model.

Instead, it is more productive to view the FPGA development process from the perspective of the embedded system's statement of requirements. You can begin to develop the FPGA design targeted at a somewhat arbitrarily chosen FPGA model. As development proceeds, you may reach a resource limit or identify an...