anyone work with an fpga before?

[jhu]

how complex of a device can you make from one?

 

[borealiss]

define complex. depends on the fpga and the software package being used to program it. the more gates a fpga has, the more gates you can mash onto it. by complex, i'm guessing you mean more gates correlates to more complexity. there are limitations to how high you can get the clockspeed in fpga's because almost always the layout of your design on the fpga is not nearly what is optimal.

 

[Shalmanese]

I've licked an FPGA before, does that count?

 

[CTho9305]

The ones we use at school will let you make a simple RISC cpu... a very slow one. I don't know what % usage those end up being, but I think you're getting close to the useful upper limit. As you approach 100% usage, the routing gets worse and worse, producing slower and slower implementations.

Originally posted by: Shalmanese
I've licked an FPGA before, does that count?

That would burn your tongue on these Alteras 😉

 

[AbsolutDealage]

There are actual VHDL implementations of older pentium chips and the like that are used as components in some designs. IIRC, there was a big legal battle about this a couple of years back....