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How the FPGA Came To Be, Did General Electric invent the PLD and EPLD in 1971?
www.eejournal.com, Sept. 17, 2024 –
My long running series titled "How the FPGA Came To Be" (referenced below) chronicles the development of programmable logic starting with programmable diode matrices developed and marketed by Harris Semiconductor starting in the mid-1960s. These diode matrices along with a Mask Programmable Logic Array (MPLA) from National Semiconductor were the inspirations for the short-lived Intersil IM5200 Field Programmable Logic Array (FPLA) and the more successful Signetics 82S100 FPLA, both introduced in 1975. John Birkner streamlined the FPLA concept, leading to MMI's introduction of the first PAL in 1978. These were all fuse-based devices based on bipolar semiconductor processes, although the "fuse" for the Intersil device was actually a bipolar transistor that shorted out due to aluminum migration during programming and was therefore really an antifuse. Altera developed and introduced the first erasable PLD, the EP300, in 1984.
Altera made a short, 93-second video to celebrate its recent semi-independence from Intel, which previously bought the company in 2015. The video chronicles the company's history and claims, rightfully, that Altera developed the first erasable PLD. I'd seen this video and was a bit nonplussed by its breathless marketing claims, but hey, that's marketing from the minds of people who are not LUT heads.
More recently, Altera started advertising the video on LinkedIn with this image:
Altera made a 93-second video about its history and is using this image to advertise it. Yes, that's Leonard Nimoy on the left. He provided celebrity advertising for Altera in the 1980s. Image credit: Altera
Altera's LinkedIn posting that advertises this video then led to a bizarre interchange on LinkedIn between myself and Aurelian Lazarut, CTO at Adaptive Design ltd. Lazarut asserted that Altera did not invent the erasable PLD. General Electric (GE) did, in 1971. That was a shocker! Here's the verbatim LinkedIn conversation that followed, starting with Altera's initial LinkedIn post:
Altera on LinkedIn
"FPGAs have come a long way since the early 80s
"The first FPGA had only 64 logic cells. [Editor's note: That was the Xilinx XC2064]
"Modern FPGAs can contain millions of logic cells, enabling complex AI and machine learning applications.
"FPGAs are used in everything from space exploration to medical imaging
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