In the decade and a half since the introduction of the first commercial field programmable gate arrays, these devices have grown in complexity from a few hundred to millions of gates of programmable logic. Once used primarily as "glue logic," FPGAs today are key system-level components packed with features such on-chip memory, clock management capability and programmable support for high performance I/O signaling standards. FPGAs allow equipment makers to significantly reduce their time to market. And because they are manufactured on the most advanced semiconductor process technologies available, FPGAs offer levels of design flexibility, performance and logic density that make them a viable and cost effective alternative to traditional fixed-logic ASICs. More important, FPGAs can be reprogrammed even after an end system has been deployed at a customer's site. As a result, FPGAs technology is opening up a new area of equipment design that allows for hardware upgrades over a network. This promises to reduce equipment maintenance costs, extend the life cycle of products and create new sources of revenue for manufacturers by allowing them to add new features and capabilities remotely to installed products.