In high-performance, real-time, embedded systems, FPGAs are typically
employed in the critical data path. In a typical application, data streams
into a system from sensors such as A/Ds, digital receivers, or video cameras,
but the data rates of today’s sensors can easily exceed a system’s available
communication and processor bandwidth. FPGAs can be incorporated into
the system to address these issues. They are well suited to provide the sensor
interface and to reduce the incoming streaming data to data rates that can be
handled by the available communication and processor bandwidth.