ABSTRACT
There is folklore that “FPGAs are cheap.” This is certainly true when comparing the cost of small numbers of FPGAs with small numbers of ASICs. The actual prices of several Altera FPGA device families taken from the Web site of an electronic parts distributor (Digi-Key Co. [1], May 25, 2010) are plotted in Figure 1.1. Each device may have various speed grades and packages, the prices of which vary greatly. The lowest price for each device is chosen for our plots.
