Short Stack with Syrup
Non-volatile Spartan-3AN

Non-volatile FPGA is one of today’s oddest market segments.  Bound by the ill-defined characteristic of “non-volatility,” the field of available devices is diverse from the ground up, with strikingly different architectures, approaches, and benefits.  Actel, long the leader in non-volatile FPGAs, began with antifuse technology (which is one-time programmable) and followed later with flash-based FPGAs.  QuickLogic fielded an antifuse-type approach from the beginning, and Lattice Semiconductor joined the fray over a year ago with their LatticeXP hybrid devices, embedding a flash boot PROM on the FPGA for rapid, on-chip configuration. [more]

Reprogrammable Logic Drives Automotive Vision Systems Design
by Kerry Howell, Lattice Semiconductor Corp.

Automotive electronics system development teams increasingly grapplewith the challenges of new industry standards and product features. An automotive vision system is an example of a design that must deliver improved performance, system integration and security.  In turn, these requirements dictate the use of Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) devices in an automotive vision system.

Many of the automotive vision systems now being developed specify several cameras in the design for different views, such as reverse, side and forward (Figure 1). [more]