FPGAs Take Central Role in Wired Communications

The wired communications business has an insatiable need for speed. Fifteen years ago, data transport rates (aka bandwidth) were typically in the hundreds of thousands of bits per second (bps). Today's networks can hurl data across the globe at 10 Gbps, and at some points in the network transmission reaches terabit speeds. FPGAs have played a part in this evolution, and as FPGA technologies advance with Moore's Law they will likely take a more central role in next-generation wired networks.

Reprinted with permission from Xcell Journal / First Quarter 2009. Article © Xcell Journal.