The Periodic Table of Programmable Logic – Rev #2

OK, as a follow up to my previous blog on this topic (Click Here to see that blog), I’ve waded my way through all of the suggestions – accepted some, rejected others, and added some of my own.

A couple of folks noted that Hg (not Ag) should be "Quicksilver (RIP)", because Hg denotes Mercury, which is also known as Quicksilver (or “hydrargyrum” as the ancients would say, meaning “liquid silver,” from "hydr" [water] and "argyros" [silver]). I totally agree and have made this change. The other changes I’ve made are as follows:

3 = Li = Little Endian
21 = Sc = Soft Core
29 = Cu = Configuration Upset
39 = Y = "Why doesn't it work?"
41 = Nb = Nybble (Nibble)
50 = Sn = Synplicity (now Synopsys)
54 = Xe = Cross Engineer
99 = ES = Embedded Software
51 = Sb = Serial Bits
56 = Ba = Bass Ackwards
74 = W = Watchdog Timer
78 = Pt = Product Term
79 = Au = Abound Logic (RIP)
81 = Tl = Tier Logic (RIP)
91 = Pa = Placement Algorithm
92 = U = Utilization (of Resources)
94 = Pu = Power-Up
101 = Md = Modular Design
102 = No = No Idea
107 = Bh = Bit Hashing
108 = Hs = High Speed I/O
109 = Mt = MathStar (RIP)

Now, if you click on This Link (or on the image below), you’ll be presented with a full-up version of the current chart. As you’ll see, we are still missing some elements. Also we want to get rid of specific product names, so we need alternatives for 19 = Kintex, 23 = Virtex, etc.


Last but not least, some of the ones we currently have are either not as relevant to programmable logic space (where no one can hear you scream) as one might hope, or they are a bit “ho hum” and boring. For myself I rather like the funny ones like 39 = Y = “Why doesn’t it work?” So let’s all get our thinking caps on and see if we can finish this off and make it something to be proud of.

Please remember to include the element numbers with your suggestions, otherwise it can be a real pain trying to track these little rascals down (try finding elements Ra, Rh, and Tm, for example … you’ll soon see what I mean :-)

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