User I/O in FPGA

Increased I/O flexibility for standard and custom computer boards, long-term availability and qualification for extended operating temperature make FPGAs (Field Programmable Gate Arrays) a key technology for time- and cost-critical embedded applications.

Flexible I/O for Customization and Long-Term Availability

With an FPGA device on a computer board, it is possible to program parts of the I/O or even a complete microcontroller needed for dedicated control tasks of a specific application without touching the board layout.

FPGAs allow customization of the hardware at an attractive price even in low quantities. A time consuming and expensive redesign of a board can often be avoided through application-specific integration of IP cores in the FPGA - an alternative for the future, especially for very specialized applications with only small or medium volumes.

Cost-Efficient Performance for Fast Time-To-Market

The sizes of today's FPGA components allow to combine many functions in one component, even complex ones. For example, the Altera® Arria® has over 30,000 logic elements. FPGAs support fast serial interconnects like PCI Express®, and their pricing is attractive (starting from 20 Euro). This makes them important factors when it comes to cost savings and time-to-market wherever you want to create individual configurations of standard products.

Safe FPGAs for Safe Computers

For safety-critical applications in avionics, the internal memory structure of the FPGA must withstand cosmic radiation. The safe computers from MEN come with triple redundancy supported by complex FPGA-based design. This helps dramatically lower software development costs by automatically managing the system's triple-redundant processors and memory.