Field-programmable gate arrays
maddog's Doghouse
Take some advice from Linus Torvalds and learn how to program an FPGA.
I was at LinuxCon in Beijing, China, this year, and Linus Torvalds was being interviewed onstage. During the interview, Linus said that if he were starting over in FOSS today, he might not create a kernel but instead, learn how to program a field-programmable gate array (FPGA). I found this interesting.
What is an FPGA? Traditional central processing units (CPUs) and graphics processing units (GPUs) are made of fixed circuits designed by computer engineers that form an "instruction set." This instruction set tells the hardware to do certain things when an instruction (designated by a program) is executed. All of this is controlled by a clock that acts like a drum keeping a beat and makes sure that everything works in harmony.
However, another way of building a computational unit is to build specialized circuitry that always processes data in a particular way – like "hard coding" the circuitry. Once the circuitry is set, there is only one thing that circuitry can do. Because the circuitry does not necessarily have to follow a "drumbeat," it can often solve that particular problem 10, 20, or even 100 times faster than a traditional CPU or GPU.
[...]
Buy this article as PDF
(incl. VAT)
Buy Linux Magazine
US / Canada
UK / Australia
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.
News
-
There's a New Linux AI Assistant in Town
Newelle is a Linux AI assistant that can work with different LLMs and includes document parsing and profiles.
-
Linux Kernel 6.16 Released with Minor Fixes
The latest Linux kernel doesn't really include any big-ticket features, just a lot of lines of code.
-
EU Sovereign Tech Fund Gains Traction
OpenForum Europe recently released a report regarding a sovereign tech fund with backing from several significant entities.
-
FreeBSD Promises a Full Desktop Installer
FreeBSD has lacked an option to include a full desktop environment during installation.
-
Linux Hits an Important Milestone
If you pay attention to the news in the Linux-sphere, you've probably heard that the open source operating system recently crashed through a ceiling no one thought possible.
-
Plasma Bigscreen Returns
A developer discovered that the Plasma Bigscreen feature had been sitting untouched, so he decided to do something about it.
-
CachyOS Now Lets Users Choose Their Shell
Imagine getting the opportunity to select which shell you want during the installation of your favorite Linux distribution. That's now a thing.
-
Wayland 1.24 Released with Fixes and New Features
Wayland continues to move forward, while X11 slowly vanishes into the shadows, and the latest release includes plenty of improvements.
-
Bugs Found in sudo
Two critical flaws allow users to gain access to root privileges.
-
Fedora Continues 32-Bit Support
In a move that should come as a relief to some portions of the Linux community, Fedora will continue supporting 32-bit architecture.