What do you do if you have an FPGA question?

Why, you "Ask Max" of course…

I tell you, I have been having a ball over at All Programmable Planet. I love explaining things (the trick is to get me to stop talking), and I've found a new venue in a series of Ask Max columns. The idea is that readers ask me questions and I respond with a short column boasting graphics that will make you squirm with excitement (well, I really am rather proud of the image I created for the first one).

All Programmable Planet has only been live for a week, but we already have the following Ask Max columns for your delectation and delight:

• Ask Max: What's Inside a Simple FPGA?
• Ask Max: Look Out for Lookup Tables!
• Ask Max: More Sophisticated FPGA Architectures
• Ask Max: ASICs vs. ASSPs vs. SoCs vs. FPGAs

If you get a moment, bounce on over and take a look, and maybe pose your own question(s) for investigation in a future Ask Max.

Actually, I have a question for you. It's now almost 30 years since the first FPGA hit the scene. At that time, the "Gate Array" portion of the "Field-Programmable Gate Array" moniker did make sense. Sad to relate, however, the name FPGA has outlived its usefulness, because modern programmable devices can do so much more than their ancestors. Is it time for a new appellation? Check out my Mind the FPGA Gap column and then take the associated Flash Poll (linked to from the column) so that I can see what everyone things:

• Mind the FPGA Gap

Meanwhile, microcontroller expert Duane Benson is happily beavering away learning all about FPGAs in his Discovering FPGAs series of articles:

• Discovering FPGAs: What's This All About?
• Discovering FPGAs: Opening the Package

Also, Chris Taylor is documenting his progress with the Papilio FPGA Development Board:

• The Art of Starting in the Middle
• Learning FPGAs: the Home-School Dilemma

And Paul Clark has just started an interesting series of articles on the PicoBlaze 8-bit soft core processor:

• Why Use the 8-Bit PicoBlaze Soft Processor Core?

In reality, I've only teasingly touched on the cornucopia of tasty topics, bodacious blogs, and capriciously cunning comments that are reverberating around the hallowed halls of All Programmable Planet. So why not bounce over to visit us and join the discussions…

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