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by astrodust 3591 days ago
"Some FPGAs can only be programmed once."

That's not an FPGA then. That's a PLA. Even then most of those can be reset using ultra-violet light, a simple process.

1 comments

> That's not an FPGA then. That's a PlA.

No, it's still called "FPGA". The "field-programmable" part refers to them being programmable after they have been manufactured, by someone else than the chip manufacturer. It doesn't matter if you can't reprogram it after it's been soldered onto a board, that's not what "field-programmable" means.

> Even then most of those can be reset using ultra-violet light, a simple process.

Once-programmable FPGAs are typically anti-fuse based. There is no way to reset their programming (we're working with space-grade single-programmable FPGAs, and yes, we're extremely careful about what gets put on them).