Part 2 of this article series discussed the development of the first successful programmable logic device, the Signetics 82S100 FPLA (field programmable logic array). A Signetics salesperson tried to convince John Birkner, a minicomputer designer at Computer Automation in Irvine, California, to use the 82S100 in his designs, but Birkner saw that the device was too costly, too big, and too slow. He thought he should go to Silicon Valley to set the IC vendors straight.

John Birkner soon got the chance to “go up there and tell them … Read More → "How the FPGA Came To Be, Part 3"

Part 1 of this article series discussed the earliest programmable ICs that could be used to implement logic circuits. Not quite programmable logic, Harris Semiconductor’s programmable diode arrays and PROMs laid the groundwork for PLDs (programmable logic devices) to come.

This is where we return to Napoleone Cavlan, Ronald Cline, and the story of how Signetics developed the first commercially successful FPLA (field programmable logic array). Cline and Cavlan both had memory IC design experience and both joined Signetics at just the right time to participate in the … Read More → "How the FPGA came to be, Part 2"

I started designing engineering workstations in 1981 for Cadnetix in Boulder, Colorado. The top computer-aided engineering (CAE) vendors of the day – Daisy Systems, Mentor Graphics, and Valid Logic (I called them the DMV) – were all founded in 1981, like Cadnetix, and each developed their own proprietary CAE software suite. The five proprietary Cadnetix workstations that I helped to design, introduced from 1982 to 1985, were all based on versions of Motorola Semiconductor’s 68000 microprocessor family (the 68000, 68010, and 68020) running a proprietary, stripped-down version of Unix (which I privately called Eunuch as an inside joke).

Daisy’ … Read More → "How the FPGA Came to Be, Part 1"