PROTEUS-Lite project: dedicated to developing a telecommunication-oriented FPGA and its applications

This paper describes a project dedicated to developing an improved (in terms of usability) version of our previous telecommunication-oriented field programmable gate array (FPGA), and its applications. To achieve this goal, we adopt several challenging design strategies. First, we determine the new FPGA architecture based on a quantitative evaluation carried out to optimize the interaction between the FPGA and CAD algorithms. In addition, we create a new chip design environment that allows semi-automatic test pattern generation and cross-checking between logic and layout design. Furthermore, a dedicated CAD system is developed based on a consideration of the evaluation results and the characteristics of the FPGA. As a result of these design strategies, the FPGA and CAD system are well-balanced, and even though the FPGA has very rich routing resources, the routing process can be finished quickly without sacrificing application-circuit performance. The FPGA is applied to several reconfigurable systems for telecommunications, and is found to offer the required functions and good performance.