What is "field-programmable gate array"

n. (context electronics English) an gate array designed to be configured by the customer or designer after manufacturing in the field, i.e. after manufacturing.

A field-programmable gate array (FPGA) is an integrated circuit designed to be configured by a customer or a designer after manufacturing hence " field-programmable". The FPGA configuration is generally specified using a hardware description language (HDL), similar to that used for an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC). ( Circuit diagrams were previously used to specify the configuration, as they were for ASICs, but this is increasingly rare.)

FPGAs contain an array of programmable logic blocks, and a hierarchy of reconfigurable interconnects that allow the blocks to be "wired together", like many logic gates that can be inter-wired in different configurations. Logic blocks can be configured to perform complex combinational functions, or merely simple logic gates like AND and XOR. In most FPGAs, logic blocks also include memory elements, which may be simple flip-flops or more complete blocks of memory.