13 lines
1.1 KiB
Markdown
13 lines
1.1 KiB
Markdown
# Intro
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* Technology is becoming more complex every day.
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* Devices get smaller, integration gets higher
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* As such, it has become harder to actually understand how the devices work.
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* 80s, you could open your PC and start probing signals on the mainboard to understand which instructions a CPU executed. These days, pretty much everything can be integrated into a single chip and the actual functionality is *built* in software.
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* One example of such a highly integrated component is the FPGA.
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* FPGAs essentially allow the designer to create large digital designs inside of an IC.
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* As these designs are created by writing software-like source code, one might easily forget the fact that what is created is, indeed, a digital circuit.
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* There is no PCB, no components, but also no visibility of the individual building blocks and connections between them.
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* To aid students learning about FPGAs better understand the technology, this project aims to provide a platform to look at the inner workings of such a chip by breaking it out of the IC and bringing it onto a PCB where every signal can be traced and measured.
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