The motivation for reading this book is the increase of implementations of FPGA (Field Programmable Application Gate Arrays) devices in embedded products. The aim of the book is to prepare you for real embedded FPGA system projects by walking step by step through an entire design of an embedded system together with adequate theory.

The FPGA technology has a huge impact on the development process, and also on how we conduct science and engineering. One of the limitations today is the insufficient knowledge of how to fully exploit the FPGA technology. The design space for FPGA devices is large and fascinating with efficiencies that vary by orders of magnitude. Further, the limitations of our technology are changing, so the "right answers" of the past will almost certainly become outdated. A good engineer and researcher must know the fundamental tradeoffs to be able to re-evaluate solutions as the underlying technology changes, like FPGA technology. We will certainly see a change in the development process and research topics in the near future in the area of embedded systems.

Many questions arise, such as: how and where do we draw the boundary between hardware and software?  How do we organize a component design paradigm with enormous power of parallel processing? What is most important to optimize when the price is close to zero for one gate?

The book concentrates on technologies, tools and reusable components for FPGA. Those three key objects are then analyzed and later used in an engineering way to guide you through theory and practical CASE studies.

FPGA technology is relatively new and very important in many applications, in terms of development cost, performance, power consumption etc. The well-known friend to FPGA technology is “Moore’s law”, which still predicts that the number of gates will increase and the cost decrease.

Tools are important for optimizing the development process; archiving short development time, cost optimal solutions, minimizing the risks of bugs etc.

Reusable components have the purpose to decrease the risks, shorten development time etc.