122-552: A field-programmable gate array ( FPGA ) is a type of configurable integrated circuit that can be repeatedly programmed after manufacturing. FPGAs are a subset of logic devices referred to as programmable logic devices (PLDs). They consist of an array of programmable logic blocks with a connecting grid, that can be configured "in the field" to interconnect with other logic blocks to perform various digital functions. FPGAs are often used in limited (low) quantity production of custom-made products, and in research and development, where
244-446: A data stream . Care must be taken when building clock domain crossing circuitry to avoid metastability . Some FPGAs contain dual port RAM blocks that are capable of working with different clocks, aiding in the construction of building FIFOs and dual port buffers that bridge clock domains. To shrink the size and power consumption of FPGAs, vendors such as Tabula and Xilinx have introduced 3D or stacked architectures . Following
366-492: A design flow that engineers use to design, verify, and analyze entire semiconductor chips. Some of the latest EDA tools use artificial intelligence (AI) to help engineers save time and improve chip performance. Integrated circuits can be broadly classified into analog , digital and mixed signal , consisting of analog and digital signaling on the same IC. Digital integrated circuits can contain billions of logic gates , flip-flops , multiplexers , and other circuits in
488-627: A fabrication facility (commonly known as a semiconductor fab ) can cost over US$ 12 billion to construct. The cost of a fabrication facility rises over time because of increased complexity of new products; this is known as Rock's law . Such a facility features: ICs can be manufactured either in-house by integrated device manufacturers (IDMs) or using the foundry model . IDMs are vertically integrated companies (like Intel and Samsung ) that design, manufacture and sell their own ICs, and may offer design and/or manufacturing (foundry) services to other companies (the latter often to fabless companies ). In
610-509: A microchip , computer chip , or simply chip , is a small electronic device made up of multiple interconnected electronic components such as transistors , resistors , and capacitors . These components are etched onto a small piece of semiconductor material, usually silicon . Integrated circuits are used in a wide range of electronic devices, including computers , smartphones , and televisions , to perform various functions such as processing and storing information. They have greatly impacted
732-412: A microprocessor will have memory on the chip. (See the regular array structure at the bottom of the first image. ) Although the structures are intricate – with widths which have been shrinking for decades – the layers remain much thinner than the device widths. The layers of material are fabricated much like a photographic process, although light waves in the visible spectrum cannot be used to "expose"
854-498: A system on a chip (SoC). Such devices blur the line between an FPGA, which carries digital ones and zeros on its internal programmable interconnect fabric, and field-programmable analog array (FPAA), which carries analog values on its internal programmable interconnect fabric. The most common FPGA architecture consists of an array of logic blocks called configurable logic blocks (CLBs) or logic array blocks (LABs) (depending on vendor), I/O pads , and routing channels. Generally, all
976-423: A Bell Atlantic line is cut, we can transfer them to ... to minimize the time of outage." The term cloud data centers (CDCs) has been used. Data centers typically cost a lot to build and maintain. Increasingly, the division of these terms has almost disappeared and they are being integrated into the term data center . The global data center market saw steady growth in the 2010s, with a notable acceleration in
1098-466: A common active area, but there was no electrical isolation to separate them from each other. The monolithic integrated circuit chip was enabled by the inventions of the planar process by Jean Hoerni and p–n junction isolation by Kurt Lehovec . Hoerni's invention was built on Carl Frosch and Lincoln Derick's work on surface protection and passivation by silicon dioxide masking and predeposition, as well as Fuller, Ditzenberger's and others work on
1220-561: A common substrate in a three-stage amplifier arrangement. Jacobi disclosed small and cheap hearing aids as typical industrial applications of his patent. An immediate commercial use of his patent has not been reported. Another early proponent of the concept was Geoffrey Dummer (1909–2002), a radar scientist working for the Royal Radar Establishment of the British Ministry of Defence . Dummer presented
1342-850: A complete system on a programmable chip . Examples of such hybrid technologies can be found in the Xilinx Zynq-7000 all Programmable SoC , which includes a 1.0 GHz dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 MPCore processor embedded within the FPGA's logic fabric, or in the Altera Arria V FPGA, which includes an 800 MHz dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 MPCore. The Atmel FPSLIC is another such device, which uses an AVR processor in combination with Atmel's programmable logic architecture. The Microsemi SmartFusion devices incorporate an ARM Cortex-M3 hard processor core (with up to 512 kB of flash and 64 kB of RAM) and analog peripherals such as
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#17327727945051464-424: A computer that would implement 600,000 reprogrammable gates. Casselman was successful and a patent related to the system was issued in 1992. Altera and Xilinx continued unchallenged and quickly grew from 1985 to the mid-1990s when competitors sprouted up, eroding a significant portion of their market share. By 1993, Actel (later Microsemi , now Microchip ) was serving about 18 percent of the market. The 1990s were
1586-520: A data center may reach as high as 92-96 dB(A). Residents living near data centers have described the sound as "a high-pitched whirring noise 24/7", saying “It’s like being on a tarmac with an airplane engine running constantly ... Except that the airplane keeps idling and never leaves.” External sources of noise include HVAC equipment and energy generators. The field of data center design has been growing for decades in various directions, including new construction big and small along with
1708-454: A data center to grow and change over time. Data center modules are pre-engineered, standardized building blocks that can be easily configured and moved as needed. A modular data center may consist of data center equipment contained within shipping containers or similar portable containers. Components of the data center can be prefabricated and standardized which facilitates moving if needed. Temperature and humidity are controlled via: It
1830-493: A data center. In 2020, data centers (excluding cryptocurrency mining) and data transmission each used about 1% of world electricity. Although some of this electricity was low carbon, the IEA called for more "government and industry efforts on energy efficiency, renewables procurement and RD&D", as some data centers still use electricity generated by fossil fuels. They also said that lifecycle emissions should be considered, that
1952-491: A few square millimeters. The small size of these circuits allows high speed, low power dissipation, and reduced manufacturing cost compared with board-level integration. These digital ICs, typically microprocessors , DSPs , and microcontrollers , use boolean algebra to process "one" and "zero" signals . Among the most advanced integrated circuits are the microprocessors or " cores ", used in personal computers, cell-phones, etc. Several cores may be integrated together in
2074-408: A layer of material, as they would be too large for the features. Thus photons of higher frequencies (typically ultraviolet ) are used to create the patterns for each layer. Because each feature is so small, electron microscopes are essential tools for a process engineer who might be debugging a fabrication process. Each device is tested before packaging using automated test equipment (ATE), in
2196-687: A low cost, all while meeting the hard real-time requirements associated with medical imaging. Another trend in the use of FPGAs is hardware acceleration , where one can use the FPGA to accelerate certain parts of an algorithm and share part of the computation between the FPGA and a general-purpose processor. The search engine Bing is noted for adopting FPGA acceleration for its search algorithm in 2014. As of 2018, FPGAs are seeing increased use as AI accelerators including Microsoft's Project Catapult and for accelerating artificial neural networks for machine learning applications. Traditionally, FPGAs have been reserved for specific vertical applications where
2318-746: A multi-channel analog-to-digital converters and digital-to-analog converters in their flash memory -based FPGA fabric. Most of the logic inside of an FPGA is synchronous circuitry that requires a clock signal . FPGAs contain dedicated global and regional routing networks for clock and reset, typically implemented as an H tree , so they can be delivered with minimal skew . FPGAs may contain analog phase-locked loop or delay-locked loop components to synthesize new clock frequencies and manage jitter . Complex designs can use multiple clocks with different frequency and phase relationships, each forming separate clock domains . These clock signals can be generated locally by an oscillator or they can be recovered from
2440-428: A number of steps for the p–n junction isolation of transistors on a chip, MOSFETs required no such steps but could be easily isolated from each other. Its advantage for integrated circuits was pointed out by Dawon Kahng in 1961. The list of IEEE milestones includes the first integrated circuit by Kilby in 1958, Hoerni's planar process and Noyce's planar IC in 1959. The earliest experimental MOS IC to be fabricated
2562-412: A period of rapid growth for FPGAs, both in circuit sophistication and the volume of production. In the early 1990s, FPGAs were primarily used in telecommunications and networking . By the end of the decade, FPGAs found their way into consumer, automotive, and industrial applications. By 2013, Altera (31 percent), Xilinx (36 percent) and Actel (10 percent) together represented approximately 77 percent of
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#17327727945052684-420: A process known as wafer testing , or wafer probing. The wafer is then cut into rectangular blocks, each of which is called a die . Each good die (plural dice , dies , or die ) is then connected into a package using aluminium (or gold) bond wires which are thermosonically bonded to pads , usually found around the edge of the die. Thermosonic bonding was first introduced by A. Coucoulas which provided
2806-459: A range of underfloor panels can create efficient cold air pathways directed to the raised-floor vented tiles. Either the cold aisle or the hot aisle can be contained. Another option is fitting cabinets with vertical exhaust duct chimneys . Hot exhaust pipes/vents/ducts can direct the air into a Plenum space above a Dropped ceiling and back to the cooling units or to outside vents. With this configuration, traditional hot/cold aisle configuration
2928-421: A rate predicted by Moore's law , leading to large-scale integration (LSI) with hundreds of transistors on a single MOS chip by the late 1960s. Following the development of the self-aligned gate (silicon-gate) MOSFET by Robert Kerwin, Donald Klein and John Sarace at Bell Labs in 1967, the first silicon-gate MOS IC technology with self-aligned gates , the basis of all modern CMOS integrated circuits,
3050-407: A reliable means of forming these vital electrical connections to the outside world. After packaging, the devices go through final testing on the same or similar ATE used during wafer probing. Industrial CT scanning can also be used. Test cost can account for over 25% of the cost of fabrication on lower-cost products, but can be negligible on low-yielding, larger, or higher-cost devices. As of 2022 ,
3172-544: A role in embedded system development due to their capability to start system software development simultaneously with hardware, enable system performance simulations at a very early phase of the development, and allow various system trials and design iterations before finalizing the system architecture. FPGAs are also commonly used during the development of ASICs to speed up the simulation process. The FPGA industry sprouted from programmable read-only memory (PROM) and programmable logic devices (PLDs). PROMs and PLDs both had
3294-426: A semiconductor to modulate its electronic properties. Doping is the process of adding dopants to a semiconductor material. Since a CMOS device only draws current on the transition between logic states , CMOS devices consume much less current than bipolar junction transistor devices. A random-access memory is the most regular type of integrated circuit; the highest density devices are thus memories; but even
3416-859: A single IC or chip. Digital memory chips and application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) are examples of other families of integrated circuits. In the 1980s, programmable logic devices were developed. These devices contain circuits whose logical function and connectivity can be programmed by the user, rather than being fixed by the integrated circuit manufacturer. This allows a chip to be programmed to do various LSI-type functions such as logic gates , adders and registers . Programmability comes in various forms – devices that can be programmed only once , devices that can be erased and then re-programmed using UV light , devices that can be (re)programmed using flash memory , and field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) which can be programmed at any time, including during operation. Current FPGAs can (as of 2016) implement
3538-532: A single die. A technique has been demonstrated to include microfluidic cooling on integrated circuits, to improve cooling performance as well as peltier thermoelectric coolers on solder bumps, or thermal solder bumps used exclusively for heat dissipation, used in flip-chip . The cost of designing and developing a complex integrated circuit is quite high, normally in the multiple tens of millions of dollars. Therefore, it only makes economic sense to produce integrated circuit products with high production volume, so
3660-495: A single layer on one side of a chip of silicon in a flat two-dimensional planar process . Researchers have produced prototypes of several promising alternatives, such as: As it becomes more difficult to manufacture ever smaller transistors, companies are using multi-chip modules / chiplets , three-dimensional integrated circuits , package on package , High Bandwidth Memory and through-silicon vias with die stacking to increase performance and reduce size, without having to reduce
3782-486: A six-pin device. Radios with the Loewe 3NF were less expensive than other radios, showing one of the advantages of integration over using discrete components , that would be seen decades later with ICs. Early concepts of an integrated circuit go back to 1949, when German engineer Werner Jacobi ( Siemens AG ) filed a patent for an integrated-circuit-like semiconductor amplifying device showing five transistors on
Field-programmable gate array - Misplaced Pages Continue
3904-403: A technology-mapped netlist is generated. The netlist can then be fit to the actual FPGA architecture using a process called place and route , usually performed by the FPGA company's proprietary place-and-route software. The user will validate the results using timing analysis , simulation , and other verification and validation techniques. Once the design and validation process is complete,
4026-407: A traditional method of data center upgrades that takes a serial and siloed approach. The typical projects within a data center transformation initiative include standardization/consolidation, virtualization , automation and security. A raised floor standards guide named GR-2930 was developed by Telcordia Technologies , a subsidiary of Ericsson . Although the first raised floor computer room
4148-505: A year after Kilby, Robert Noyce at Fairchild Semiconductor invented the first true monolithic IC chip. More practical than Kilby's implementation, Noyce's chip was made of silicon , whereas Kilby's was made of germanium , and Noyce's was fabricated using the planar process , developed in early 1959 by his colleague Jean Hoerni and included the critical on-chip aluminum interconnecting lines. Modern IC chips are based on Noyce's monolithic IC, rather than Kilby's. NASA's Apollo Program
4270-435: Is a new custom design for implementation on an FPGA. Contemporary FPGAs have ample logic gates and RAM blocks to implement complex digital computations. FPGAs can be used to implement any logical function that an ASIC can perform. The ability to update the functionality after shipping, partial re-configuration of a portion of the design and the low non-recurring engineering costs relative to an ASIC design (notwithstanding
4392-892: Is a programmable slew rate on each output pin. This allows the user to set low rates on lightly loaded pins that would otherwise ring or couple unacceptably, and to set higher rates on heavily loaded high-speed channels that would otherwise run too slowly. Also common are quartz- crystal oscillator driver circuitry, on-chip RC oscillators , and phase-locked loops with embedded voltage-controlled oscillators used for clock generation and management as well as for high-speed serializer-deserializer (SERDES) transmit clocks and receiver clock recovery. Fairly common are differential comparators on input pins designed to be connected to differential signaling channels. A few mixed signal FPGAs have integrated peripheral analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) and digital-to-analog converters (DACs) with analog signal conditioning blocks, allowing them to operate as
4514-531: Is also a concern, and for this reason, a data center has to offer a secure environment that minimizes the chances of a security breach. A data center must, therefore, keep high standards for assuring the integrity and functionality of its hosted computer environment. Industry research company International Data Corporation (IDC) puts the average age of a data center at nine years old. Gartner , another research company, says data centers older than seven years are obsolete. The growth in data (163 zettabytes by 2025 )
4636-946: Is an industrial-scale operation using as much electricity as a medium town. Estimated global data center electricity consumption in 2022 was 240–340 TWh , or roughly 1–1.3% of global electricity demand. This excludes energy used for cryptocurrency mining, which was estimated to be around 110 TWh in 2022, or another 0.4% of global electricity demand. The IEA projects that data center electric use could double between 2022 and 2026. High demand for electricity from data centers, including by cryptomining and artificial intelligence , has also increased strain on local electric grids and increased electricity prices in some markets. Data centers can vary widely in terms of size, power requirements, redundancy, and overall structure. Four common categories used to segment types of data centers are onsite data centers, colocation facilities, hyperscale data centers, and edge data centers. Data centers have their roots in
4758-917: Is based on CMOS . Rarer alternatives to the SRAM approach include: In 2016, long-time industry rivals Xilinx (now part of AMD ) and Altera (now part of İntel ) were the FPGA market leaders. At that time, they controlled nearly 90 percent of the market. Both Xilinx (now AMD) and Altera (now Intel) provide proprietary electronic design automation software for Windows and Linux ( ISE / Vivado and Quartus ) which enables engineers to design , analyze, simulate , and synthesize ( compile ) their designs. In March 2010, Tabula announced their FPGA technology that uses time-multiplexed logic and interconnect that claims potential cost savings for high-density applications. On March 24, 2015, Tabula officially shut down. On June 1, 2015, Intel announced it would acquire Altera for approximately US$ 16.7 billion and completed
4880-445: Is determined by estimates such as those derived from Rent's rule or by experiments with existing designs." In general, a logic block consists of a few logical cells. A typical cell consists of a 4-input LUT, a full adder (FA) and a D-type flip-flop . The LUT might be split into two 3-input LUTs. In normal mode those are combined into a 4-input LUT through the first multiplexer (mux). In arithmetic mode, their outputs are fed to
5002-496: Is high because the IC's components switch quickly and consume comparatively little power because of their small size and proximity. The main disadvantage of ICs is the high initial cost of designing them and the enormous capital cost of factory construction. This high initial cost means ICs are only commercially viable when high production volumes are anticipated. An integrated circuit is defined as: A circuit in which all or some of
Field-programmable gate array - Misplaced Pages Continue
5124-559: Is important that computers do not get humid or overheat, as high humidity can lead to dust clogging the fans, which leads to overheat, or can cause components to malfunction, ruining the board and running a fire hazard. Overheat can cause components, usually the silicon or copper of the wires or circuits to melt, causing connections to loosen, causing fire hazards. Backup power consists of one or more uninterruptible power supplies , battery banks, and/or diesel / gas turbine generators. To prevent single points of failure , all elements of
5246-451: Is including embodied emissions, such as in buildings. Data centers are estimated to have been responsible for 0.5% of US greenhouse gas emissions in 2018. Some Chinese companies, such as Tencent , have pledged to be carbon neutral by 2030, while others such as Alibaba have been criticized by Greenpeace for not committing to become carbon neutral. Google and Microsoft now each consume more power than some fairly big countries, surpassing
5368-458: Is not a requirement. Data centers feature fire protection systems, including passive and Active Design elements, as well as implementation of fire prevention programs in operations. Smoke detectors are usually installed to provide early warning of a fire at its incipient stage. Although the main room usually does not allow Wet Pipe-based Systems due to the fragile nature of Circuit-boards , there still exist systems that can be used in
5490-690: Is obsolete. An early attempt at combining several components in one device (like modern ICs) was the Loewe 3NF vacuum tube first made in 1926. Unlike ICs, it was designed with the purpose of tax avoidance , as in Germany, radio receivers had a tax that was levied depending on how many tube holders a radio receiver had. It allowed radio receivers to have a single tube holder. One million were manufactured, and were "a first step in integration of radioelectronic devices". The device contained an amplifier , composed of three triodes, two capacitors and four resistors in
5612-495: Is one factor driving the need for data centers to modernize. Focus on modernization is not new: concern about obsolete equipment was decried in 2007, and in 2011 Uptime Institute was concerned about the age of the equipment therein. By 2018 concern had shifted once again, this time to the age of the staff: "data center staff are aging faster than the equipment." The Telecommunications Industry Association 's Telecommunications Infrastructure Standard for Data Centers specifies
5734-418: Is similar to how large-scale food companies refrigerate and store their products. Computer cabinets/ Server farms are often organized for containment of hot/cold aisles. Proper air duct placement prevents the cold and hot air from mixing. Rows of cabinets are paired to face each other so that the cool and hot air intakes and exhausts don't mix air, which would severely reduce cooling efficiency. Alternatively,
5856-553: The GPL , BSD or similar license). Such designs are known as open-source hardware . In a typical design flow , an FPGA application developer will simulate the design at multiple stages throughout the design process. Initially the RTL description in VHDL or Verilog is simulated by creating test benches to simulate the system and observe results. Then, after the synthesis engine has mapped
5978-457: The dot-com bubble of 1997–2000. Companies needed fast Internet connectivity and non-stop operation to deploy systems and to establish a presence on the Internet. Installing such equipment was not viable for many smaller companies. Many companies started building very large facilities, called internet data centers (IDCs), which provide enhanced capabilities, such as crossover backup: "If
6100-476: The dual in-line package (DIP), first in ceramic and later in plastic, which is commonly cresol - formaldehyde - novolac . In the 1980s pin counts of VLSI circuits exceeded the practical limit for DIP packaging, leading to pin grid array (PGA) and leadless chip carrier (LCC) packages. Surface mount packaging appeared in the early 1980s and became popular in the late 1980s, using finer lead pitch with leads formed as either gull-wing or J-lead, as exemplified by
6222-488: The non-recurring engineering (NRE) costs are spread across typically millions of production units. Modern semiconductor chips have billions of components, and are far too complex to be designed by hand. Software tools to help the designer are essential. Electronic design automation (EDA), also referred to as electronic computer-aided design (ECAD), is a category of software tools for designing electronic systems , including integrated circuits. The tools work together in
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#17327727945056344-498: The periodic table of the chemical elements were identified as the most likely materials for a solid-state vacuum tube . Starting with copper oxide , proceeding to germanium , then silicon , the materials were systematically studied in the 1940s and 1950s. Today, monocrystalline silicon is the main substrate used for ICs although some III-V compounds of the periodic table such as gallium arsenide are used for specialized applications like LEDs , lasers , solar cells and
6466-544: The small-outline integrated circuit (SOIC) package – a carrier which occupies an area about 30–50% less than an equivalent DIP and is typically 70% thinner. This package has "gull wing" leads protruding from the two long sides and a lead spacing of 0.050 inches. In the late 1990s, plastic quad flat pack (PQFP) and thin small-outline package (TSOP) packages became the most common for high pin count devices, though PGA packages are still used for high-end microprocessors . Ball grid array (BGA) packages have existed since
6588-416: The switching power consumption per transistor goes down, while the memory capacity and speed go up, through the relationships defined by Dennard scaling ( MOSFET scaling ). Because speed, capacity, and power consumption gains are apparent to the end user, there is fierce competition among the manufacturers to use finer geometries. Over the years, transistor sizes have decreased from tens of microns in
6710-503: The very large-scale integration (VLSI) of more than 10,000 transistors on a single chip. At first, MOS-based computers only made sense when high density was required, such as aerospace and pocket calculators . Computers built entirely from TTL, such as the 1970 Datapoint 2200 , were much faster and more powerful than single-chip MOS microprocessors such as the 1972 Intel 8008 until the early 1980s. Advances in IC technology, primarily smaller features and larger chips, have allowed
6832-413: The 1960s, the size, speed, and capacity of chips have progressed enormously, driven by technical advances that fit more and more transistors on chips of the same size – a modern chip may have many billions of transistors in an area the size of a human fingernail. These advances, roughly following Moore's law , make the computer chips of today possess millions of times the capacity and thousands of times
6954-425: The 1970s. Flip-chip Ball Grid Array packages, which allow for a much higher pin count than other package types, were developed in the 1990s. In an FCBGA package, the die is mounted upside-down (flipped) and connects to the package balls via a package substrate that is similar to a printed-circuit board rather than by wires. FCBGA packages allow an array of input-output signals (called Area-I/O) to be distributed over
7076-482: The 22 nm node (Intel) or 16/14 nm nodes. Mono-crystal silicon wafers are used in most applications (or for special applications, other semiconductors such as gallium arsenide are used). The wafer need not be entirely silicon. Photolithography is used to mark different areas of the substrate to be doped or to have polysilicon, insulators or metal (typically aluminium or copper) tracks deposited on them. Dopants are impurities intentionally introduced to
7198-533: The FPGA market. Companies like Microsoft have started to use FPGAs to accelerate high-performance, computationally intensive systems (like the data centers that operate their Bing search engine ), due to the performance per watt advantage FPGAs deliver. Microsoft began using FPGAs to accelerate Bing in 2014, and in 2018 began deploying FPGAs across other data center workloads for their Azure cloud computing platform. The following timelines indicate progress in different aspects of FPGA design. A design start
7320-471: The FPGA to be created with different process technologies, as the process requirements are different between the FPGA fabric itself and the very high speed 28 Gbit/s serial transceivers. An FPGA built in this way is called a heterogeneous FPGA . Altera's heterogeneous approach involves using a single monolithic FPGA die and connecting other dies and technologies to the FPGA using Intel's embedded multi_die interconnect bridge (EMIB) technology. To define
7442-619: The U.S. accounts for roughly 40 percent of the global market. A study published by the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) in May 2024 estimates U.S. data center power consumption could range from 4.6% to 9.1% of the country’s generation by 2030. As of 2023, about 80% of U.S. data center load was concentrated in 15 states, led by Virginia and Texas. Modernization and data center transformation enhances performance and energy efficiency . Information security
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#17327727945057564-716: The acquisition on December 30, 2015. On October 27, 2020, AMD announced it would acquire Xilinx and completed the acquisition valued at about US$ 50 billion in February 2022. In February 2024 Altera became independent of Intel again. Other manufacturers include: An FPGA can be used to solve any problem which is computable . FPGAs can be used to implement a soft microprocessor , such as the Xilinx MicroBlaze or Altera Nios II . But their advantage lies in that they are significantly faster for some applications because of their parallel nature and optimality in terms of
7686-490: The adder. The selection of mode is programmed into the second mux. The output can be either synchronous or asynchronous , depending on the programming of the third mux. In practice, the entire adder or parts of it are stored as functions into the LUTs in order to save space . Modern FPGA families expand upon the above capabilities to include higher-level functionality fixed in silicon. Having these common functions embedded in
7808-435: The behavior of the FPGA, the user provides a design in a hardware description language (HDL) or as a schematic design. The HDL form is more suited to work with large structures because it's possible to specify high-level functional behavior rather than drawing every piece by hand. However, schematic entry can allow for easier visualization of a design and its component modules . Using an electronic design automation tool,
7930-468: The binary file generated, typically using the FPGA vendor's proprietary software, is used to (re-)configure the FPGA. This file is transferred to the FPGA via a serial interface ( JTAG ) or to an external memory device such as an EEPROM . The most common HDLs are VHDL and Verilog . National Instruments ' LabVIEW graphical programming language (sometimes referred to as G ) has an FPGA add-in module available to target and program FPGA hardware. Verilog
8052-719: The circuit elements are inseparably associated and electrically interconnected so that it is considered to be indivisible for the purposes of construction and commerce. In strict usage, integrated circuit refers to the single-piece circuit construction originally known as a monolithic integrated circuit , which comprises a single piece of silicon. In general usage, circuits not meeting this strict definition are sometimes referred to as ICs, which are constructed using many different technologies, e.g. 3D IC , 2.5D IC , MCM , thin-film transistors , thick-film technologies , or hybrid integrated circuits . The choice of terminology frequently appears in discussions related to whether Moore's Law
8174-527: The circuit reduces the area required and gives those functions increased performance compared to building them from logical primitives. Examples of these include multipliers , generic DSP blocks , embedded processors , high-speed I/O logic and embedded memories . Higher-end FPGAs can contain high-speed multi-gigabit transceivers and hard IP cores such as processor cores , Ethernet medium access control units , PCI or PCI Express controllers, and external memory controllers . These cores exist alongside
8296-479: The components of the electronic circuit are completely integrated". The first customer for the new invention was the US Air Force . Kilby won the 2000 Nobel Prize in physics for his part in the invention of the integrated circuit. However, Kilby's invention was not a true monolithic integrated circuit chip since it had external gold-wire connections, which would have made it difficult to mass-produce. Half
8418-518: The creative re-use of existing facilities, like abandoned retail space, old salt mines and war-era bunkers. Local building codes may govern the minimum ceiling heights and other parameters. Some of the considerations in the design of data centers are: Various metrics exist for measuring the data-availability that results from data-center availability beyond 95% uptime, with the top of the scale counting how many nines can be placed after 99% . Modularity and flexibility are key elements in allowing for
8540-489: The data center is large or contains sensitive information. Fingerprint recognition mantraps are starting to be commonplace. Logging access is required by some data protection regulations; some organizations tightly link this to access control systems. Multiple log entries can occur at the main entrance, entrances to internal rooms, and at equipment cabinets. Access control at cabinets can be integrated with intelligent power distribution units , so that locks are networked through
8662-445: The design to a netlist, the netlist is translated to a gate-level description where simulation is repeated to confirm the synthesis proceeded without errors. Finally, the design is laid out in the FPGA at which point propagation delay values can be back-annotated onto the netlist, and the simulation can be run again with these values. More recently, OpenCL (Open Computing Language) is being used by programmers to take advantage of
8784-473: The desktop Datapoint 2200 were built from bipolar integrated circuits, either TTL or the even faster emitter-coupled logic (ECL). Nearly all modern IC chips are metal–oxide–semiconductor (MOS) integrated circuits, built from MOSFETs (metal–oxide–silicon field-effect transistors). The MOSFET invented at Bell Labs between 1955 and 1960, made it possible to build high-density integrated circuits . In contrast to bipolar transistors which required
8906-418: The die must pass through the material electrically connecting the die to the package, through the conductive traces (paths) in the package, through the leads connecting the package to the conductive traces on the printed circuit board . The materials and structures used in the path these electrical signals must travel have very different electrical properties, compared to those that travel to different parts of
9028-541: The diffusion of impurities into silicon. A precursor idea to the IC was to create small ceramic substrates (so-called micromodules ), each containing a single miniaturized component. Components could then be integrated and wired into a bidimensional or tridimensional compact grid. This idea, which seemed very promising in 1957, was proposed to the US Army by Jack Kilby and led to the short-lived Micromodule Program (similar to 1951's Project Tinkertoy). However, as
9150-537: The early 1970s to 10 nanometers in 2017 with a corresponding million-fold increase in transistors per unit area. As of 2016, typical chip areas range from a few square millimeters to around 600 mm , with up to 25 million transistors per mm . The expected shrinking of feature sizes and the needed progress in related areas was forecast for many years by the International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors (ITRS). The final ITRS
9272-494: The electrical systems, including backup systems, are typically given redundant copies , and critical servers are connected to both the A-side and B-side power feeds. This arrangement is often made to achieve N+1 redundancy in the systems. Static transfer switches are sometimes used to ensure instantaneous switchover from one supply to the other in the event of a power failure. Options include: Air flow management addresses
9394-593: The elevated floor). A single mainframe required a great deal of power and had to be cooled to avoid overheating. Security became important – computers were expensive, and were often used for military purposes. Basic design guidelines for controlling access to the computer room were therefore devised. During the microcomputer industry boom of the 1980s, users started to deploy computers everywhere, in many cases with little or no care about operating requirements. However, as information technology (IT) operations started to grow in complexity, organizations grew aware of
9516-541: The entire die rather than being confined to the die periphery. BGA devices have the advantage of not needing a dedicated socket but are much harder to replace in case of device failure. Intel transitioned away from PGA to land grid array (LGA) and BGA beginning in 2004, with the last PGA socket released in 2014 for mobile platforms. As of 2018 , AMD uses PGA packages on mainstream desktop processors, BGA packages on mobile processors, and high-end desktop and server microprocessors use LGA packages. Electrical signals leaving
9638-403: The equipment intended for installation in those spaces. These criteria were developed jointly by Telcordia and industry representatives. They may be applied to data center spaces housing data processing or Information Technology (IT) equipment. The equipment may be used to: Data center transformation takes a step-by-step approach through integrated projects carried out over time. This differs from
9760-580: The equivalent of millions of gates and operate at frequencies up to 1 GHz . Analog ICs, such as sensors , power management circuits , and operational amplifiers (op-amps), process continuous signals , and perform analog functions such as amplification , active filtering , demodulation , and mixing . ICs can combine analog and digital circuits on a chip to create functions such as analog-to-digital converters and digital-to-analog converters . Such mixed-signal circuits offer smaller size and lower cost, but must account for signal interference. Prior to
9882-545: The field of electronics by enabling device miniaturization and enhanced functionality. Integrated circuits are orders of magnitude smaller, faster, and less expensive than those constructed of discrete components, allowing a large transistor count . The IC's mass production capability, reliability, and building-block approach to integrated circuit design have ensured the rapid adoption of standardized ICs in place of designs using discrete transistors. ICs are now used in virtually all electronic equipment and have revolutionized
10004-563: The first commercially viable field-programmable gate array in 1985 – the XC2064. The XC2064 had programmable gates and programmable interconnects between gates, the beginnings of a new technology and market. The XC2064 had 64 configurable logic blocks (CLBs), with two three-input lookup tables (LUTs). In 1987, the Naval Surface Warfare Center funded an experiment proposed by Steve Casselman to develop
10126-412: The foundry model, fabless companies (like Nvidia ) only design and sell ICs and outsource all manufacturing to pure play foundries such as TSMC . These foundries may offer IC design services. The earliest integrated circuits were packaged in ceramic flat packs , which continued to be used by the military for their reliability and small size for many years. Commercial circuit packaging quickly moved to
10248-485: The generally higher unit cost), offer advantages for many applications. As FPGA designs employ very fast I/O rates and bidirectional data buses , it becomes a challenge to verify correct timing of valid data within setup time and hold time. Floor planning helps resource allocation within FPGAs to meet these timing constraints. Some FPGAs have analog features in addition to digital functions. The most common analog feature
10370-457: The higher cost of individual FPGAs is not as important, and where creating and manufacturing a custom circuit wouldn't be feasible. Other applications for FPGAs include the telecommunications, automotive, aerospace, and industrial sectors, which benefit from their flexibility, high signal processing speed, and parallel processing abilities. A FPGA configuration is generally written using a hardware description language (HDL) e.g. VHDL , similar to
10492-568: The highest-speed integrated circuits. It took decades to perfect methods of creating crystals with minimal defects in semiconducting materials' crystal structure . Semiconductor ICs are fabricated in a planar process which includes three key process steps – photolithography , deposition (such as chemical vapor deposition ), and etching . The main process steps are supplemented by doping and cleaning. More recent or high-performance ICs may instead use multi-gate FinFET or GAAFET transistors instead of planar ones, starting at
10614-442: The huge computer rooms of the 1940s, typified by ENIAC , one of the earliest examples of a data center. Early computer systems, complex to operate and maintain, required a special environment in which to operate. Many cables were necessary to connect all the components, and methods to accommodate and organize these were devised such as standard racks to mount equipment, raised floors , and cable trays (installed overhead or under
10736-602: The idea to the public at the Symposium on Progress in Quality Electronic Components in Washington, D.C. , on 7 May 1952. He gave many symposia publicly to propagate his ideas and unsuccessfully attempted to build such a circuit in 1956. Between 1953 and 1957, Sidney Darlington and Yasuo Tarui ( Electrotechnical Laboratory ) proposed similar chip designs where several transistors could share
10858-502: The introduction of its 28 nm 7-series FPGAs, Xilinx said that several of the highest-density parts in those FPGA product lines will be constructed using multiple dies in one package, employing technology developed for 3D construction and stacked-die assemblies. Xilinx's approach stacks several (three or four) active FPGA dies side by side on a silicon interposer – a single piece of silicon that carries passive interconnect. The multi-die construction also allows different parts of
10980-421: The late 1990s, radios could not be fabricated in the same low-cost CMOS processes as microprocessors. But since 1998, radio chips have been developed using RF CMOS processes. Examples include Intel's DECT cordless phone, or 802.11 ( Wi-Fi ) chips created by Atheros and other companies. Modern electronic component distributors often further sub-categorize integrated circuits: The semiconductors of
11102-563: The late 1990s, applications that had traditionally been the sole reserve of digital signal processors (DSPs) began to use FPGAs instead. The evolution of FPGAs has motivated an increase in the use of these devices, whose architecture allows the development of hardware solutions optimized for complex tasks, such as 3D MRI image segmentation, 3D discrete wavelet transform, tomographic image reconstruction, or PET/MRI systems. The developed solutions can perform intensive computation tasks with parallel processing, are dynamically reprogrammable, and have
11224-534: The latter half of the decade. According to Gartner , worldwide data center infrastructure spending reached $ 200 billion in 2021, representing a 6% increase from 2020 despite the economic challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic . The latter part of the 2010s and early 2020s saw a significant shift towards AI and machine learning applications, generating a global boom for more powerful and efficient data center infrastructure. As of March 2021, global data creation
11346-500: The minimum requirements for telecommunications infrastructure of data centers and computer rooms including single tenant enterprise data centers and multi-tenant Internet hosting data centers. The topology proposed in this document is intended to be applicable to any size data center. Telcordia GR-3160, NEBS Requirements for Telecommunications Data Center Equipment and Spaces , provides guidelines for data center spaces within telecommunications networks, and environmental requirements for
11468-399: The need for direct access by personnel, except under extraordinary circumstances. Because of the lack of need for staff to enter the data center, it can be operated without lighting. All of the devices are accessed and managed by remote systems, with automation programs used to perform unattended operations. In addition to the energy savings, reduction in staffing costs and the ability to locate
11590-436: The need to control IT resources. The availability of inexpensive networking equipment, coupled with new standards for the network structured cabling , made it possible to use a hierarchical design that put the servers in a specific room inside the company. The use of the term data center , as applied to specially designed computer rooms, started to gain popular recognition about this time. A boom of data centers came during
11712-436: The need to improve data center computer cooling efficiency by preventing the recirculation of hot air exhausted from IT equipment and reducing bypass airflow. There are several methods of separating hot and cold airstreams, such as hot/cold aisle containment and in-row cooling units. Cold aisle containment is done by exposing the rear of equipment racks, while the fronts of the servers are enclosed with doors and covers. This
11834-433: The number of MOS transistors in an integrated circuit to double every two years, a trend known as Moore's law. Moore originally stated it would double every year, but he went on to change the claim to every two years in 1975. This increased capacity has been used to decrease cost and increase functionality. In general, as the feature size shrinks, almost every aspect of an IC's operation improves. The cost per transistor and
11956-416: The number of gates used for certain processes. FPGAs were originally introduced as competitors to CPLDs to implement glue logic for printed circuit boards . As their size, capabilities, and speed increased, FPGAs took over additional functions to the point where some are now marketed as full systems on chips (SoCs). Particularly with the introduction of dedicated multipliers into FPGA architectures in
12078-588: The ones used for application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs). Circuit diagrams were formerly used to write the configuration. The logic blocks of an FPGA can be configured to perform complex combinational functions , or act as simple logic gates like AND and XOR . In most FPGAs, logic blocks also include memory elements , which may be simple flip-flops or more sophisticated blocks of memory. Many FPGAs can be reprogrammed to implement different logic functions , allowing flexible reconfigurable computing as performed in computer software . FPGAs also have
12200-502: The option of being programmed in batches in a factory or in the field (field-programmable). Altera was founded in 1983 and delivered the industry's first reprogrammable logic device in 1984 – the EP300 – which featured a quartz window in the package that allowed users to shine an ultra-violet lamp on the die to erase the EPROM cells that held the device configuration. Xilinx produced
12322-496: The performance and power efficiencies that FPGAs provide. OpenCL allows programmers to develop code in the C programming language . For further information, see high-level synthesis and C to HDL . Most FPGAs rely on an SRAM -based approach to be programmed. These FPGAs are in-system programmable and re-programmable, but require external boot devices. For example, flash memory or EEPROM devices may load contents into internal SRAM that controls routing and logic. The SRAM approach
12444-567: The programmable fabric, but they are built out of transistors instead of LUTs so they have ASIC-level performance and power consumption without consuming a significant amount of fabric resources, leaving more of the fabric free for the application-specific logic. The multi-gigabit transceivers also contain high-performance signal conditioning circuitry along with high-speed serializers and deserializers, components that cannot be built out of LUTs. Higher-level physical layer (PHY) functionality such as line coding may or may not be implemented alongside
12566-497: The project was gaining momentum, Kilby came up with a new, revolutionary design: the IC. Newly employed by Texas Instruments , Kilby recorded his initial ideas concerning the integrated circuit in July 1958, successfully demonstrating the first working example of an integrated circuit on 12 September 1958. In his patent application of 6 February 1959, Kilby described his new device as "a body of semiconductor material … wherein all
12688-615: The rest of the facility or in cold/hot aisle air circulation systems that are closed systems , such as: However, there also exist other means to put out fires, especially in Sensitive areas , usually using Gaseous fire suppression , of which Halon gas was the most popular, until the negative effects of producing and using it were discovered. [1] Physical access is usually restricted. Layered security often starts with fencing, bollards and mantraps . Video camera surveillance and permanent security guards are almost always present if
12810-407: The routing channels have the same width (number of signals). Multiple I/O pads may fit into the height of one row or the width of one column in the array. "An application circuit must be mapped into an FPGA with adequate resources. While the number of logic blocks and I/Os required is easily determined from the design, the number of routing channels needed may vary considerably even among designs with
12932-413: The same amount of logic. For example, a crossbar switch requires much more routing than a systolic array with the same gate count. Since unused routing channels increase the cost (and decrease the performance) of the FPGA without providing any benefit, FPGA manufacturers try to provide just enough channels so that most designs that will fit in terms of lookup tables (LUTs) and I/Os can be routed . This
13054-430: The same appliance. Energy use is a central issue for data centers. Power draw ranges from a few kW for a rack of servers in a closet to several tens of MW for large facilities. Some facilities have power densities more than 100 times that of a typical office building. For higher power density facilities, electricity costs are a dominant operating expense and account for over 10% of the total cost of ownership (TCO) of
13176-716: The same die. As a result, they require special design techniques to ensure the signals are not corrupted, and much more electric power than signals confined to the die itself. Data center A data center is a building , a dedicated space within a building, or a group of buildings used to house computer systems and associated components, such as telecommunications and storage systems . Since IT operations are crucial for business continuity , it generally includes redundant or backup components and infrastructure for power supply , data communication connections, environmental controls (e.g., air conditioning , fire suppression), and various security devices. A large data center
13298-478: The serializers and deserializers in hard logic, depending on the FPGA. An alternate approach to using hard macro processors is to make use of soft processor IP cores that are implemented within the FPGA logic. Nios II , MicroBlaze and Mico32 are examples of popular softcore processors. Many modern FPGAs are programmed at run time , which has led to the idea of reconfigurable computing or reconfigurable systems – CPUs that reconfigure themselves to suit
13420-470: The site further from population centers, implementing a lights-out data center reduces the threat of malicious attacks upon the infrastructure. Generally speaking, local authorities prefer noise levels at data centers to be "10 dB below the existing night-time background noise level at the nearest residence." OSHA regulations require monitoring of noise levels inside data centers if noise exceeds 85 decibels. The average noise level in server areas of
13542-474: The size of the transistors. Such techniques are collectively known as advanced packaging . Advanced packaging is mainly divided into 2.5D and 3D packaging. 2.5D describes approaches such as multi-chip modules while 3D describes approaches where dies are stacked in one way or another, such as package on package and high bandwidth memory. All approaches involve 2 or more dies in a single package. Alternatively, approaches such as 3D NAND stack multiple layers on
13664-427: The speed of the computer chips of the early 1970s. ICs have three main advantages over circuits constructed out of discrete components: size, cost and performance. The size and cost is low because the chips, with all their components, are printed as a unit by photolithography rather than being constructed one transistor at a time. Furthermore, packaged ICs use much less material than discrete circuits. Performance
13786-538: The task at hand. Additionally, new non-FPGA architectures are beginning to emerge. Software-configurable microprocessors such as the Stretch S5000 adopt a hybrid approach by providing an array of processor cores and FPGA-like programmable cores on the same chip. In 2012 the coarse-grained architectural approach was taken a step further by combining the logic blocks and interconnects of traditional FPGAs with embedded microprocessors and related peripherals to form
13908-399: The volume of production is small. For these low-volume applications, the premium that companies pay in hardware cost per unit for a programmable chip is more affordable than the development resources spent on creating an ASIC. As of 2017, new cost and performance dynamics have broadened the range of viable applications. Integrated circuit An integrated circuit ( IC ), also known as
14030-400: The world of electronics . Computers, mobile phones, and other home appliances are now essential parts of the structure of modern societies, made possible by the small size and low cost of ICs such as modern computer processors and microcontrollers . Very-large-scale integration was made practical by technological advancements in semiconductor device fabrication . Since their origins in
14152-401: Was a 16-transistor chip built by Fred Heiman and Steven Hofstein at RCA in 1962. General Microelectronics later introduced the first commercial MOS integrated circuit in 1964, a 120-transistor shift register developed by Robert Norman. By 1964, MOS chips had reached higher transistor density and lower manufacturing costs than bipolar chips. MOS chips further increased in complexity at
14274-679: Was created to simplify the process making HDL more robust and flexible. Verilog has a C-like syntax, unlike VHDL. To simplify the design of complex systems in FPGAs, there exist libraries of predefined complex functions and circuits that have been tested and optimized to speed up the design process. These predefined circuits are commonly called intellectual property (IP) cores , and are available from FPGA vendors and third-party IP suppliers. They are rarely free, and typically released under proprietary licenses. Other predefined circuits are available from developer communities such as OpenCores (typically released under free and open source licenses such as
14396-441: Was developed at Fairchild Semiconductor by Federico Faggin in 1968. The application of MOS LSI chips to computing was the basis for the first microprocessors , as engineers began recognizing that a complete computer processor could be contained on a single MOS LSI chip. This led to the inventions of the microprocessor and the microcontroller by the early 1970s. During the early 1970s, MOS integrated circuit technology enabled
14518-514: Was issued in 2016, and it is being replaced by the International Roadmap for Devices and Systems . Initially, ICs were strictly electronic devices. The success of ICs has led to the integration of other technologies, in an attempt to obtain the same advantages of small size and low cost. These technologies include mechanical devices, optics, and sensors. As of 2018 , the vast majority of all transistors are MOSFETs fabricated in
14640-402: Was made by IBM in 1956, and they've "been around since the 1960s", it was the 1970s that made it more common for computer centers to thereby allow cool air to circulate more efficiently. The first purpose of the raised floor was to allow access for wiring. The lights-out data center, also known as a darkened or a dark data center, is a data center that, ideally, has all but eliminated
14762-427: Was projected to grow to more than 180 zettabytes by 2025, up from 64.2 zettabytes in 2020. The United States is currently the foremost leader in data center infrastructure, hosting 5,381 data centers as of March 2024, the highest number of any country worldwide. According to global consultancy McKinsey & Co., U.S. market demand is expected to double to 35 gigawatts (GW) by 2030, up from 17 GW in 2022. As of 2023,
14884-480: Was the largest single consumer of integrated circuits between 1961 and 1965. Transistor–transistor logic (TTL) was developed by James L. Buie in the early 1960s at TRW Inc. TTL became the dominant integrated circuit technology during the 1970s to early 1980s. Dozens of TTL integrated circuits were a standard method of construction for the processors of minicomputers and mainframe computers . Computers such as IBM 360 mainframes, PDP-11 minicomputers and
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