Hardware interview practice
Choose between an FPGA and a CPLD
A board needs a small amount of deterministic glue logic that becomes active immediately at power-up and must retain configuration without loading an external bitstream. It does not need DSP blocks, large RAMs, or high logic capacity. Which device class is the better default choice?
Choose one
Answer choices
- A. Either is identical in boot behavior, architecture, capacity, and routing predictability.
- B. An FPGA, because CPLDs cannot implement any sequential logic.
- C. An SRAM FPGA, because every SRAM FPGA retains its configuration with power removed.
- D. A nonvolatile CPLD, because the requirement favors instant-on retained configuration and modest, timing-predictable glue logic.