
Consequently it will be necessary to connect external devices using, eg, a breadboard, and finding an additional card with a microcontroller. and not have to use as a microcontroller “generator of stimuli”. Normally the economic trading cards, compared to CPLD Fun Board, They lack some “peripherals” come led, buttons, display a 7 segments, etc. Which can be purchased from known e-commerce sites from around 6$. Without going to choose expensive cards (> 100$) like this: To this end you can use the CPLD Fun Board I made for this purpose, or another business card containing a EPM240T100 CPLD or another of the same family. Of course, first of all you need a card “development” which contains a CPLD EPM240T100. Hours we will see that “ingredients” They need to start using the CPLD EPM240T100 representing “entry level” Max II family. The CPLD programming is to load the configuration (also known as bitstream) within the EEPROM and CFM, if used, within the FOM. Within a EPM240T100 type CPLD we're going to use are 240 The, in addition there is an EEPROM memory block that holds the configuration to be loaded at power (CFM), and a further user EEPROM memory block (UFM). The Flip-Flop constitutes an atomic memory element which can be associated with the logical function of the LUT (to realize, and example, logs, counters, etc.). The LUT can be regarded as a kind of “PROM decoding”, programming it is possible to realize a logic function at will within the LUT.

Wanting to simplify, an LE is constituted by a LUT (Look Up Table) with 4 inputs and by a Flip-Flop. In the case of the family of Max II of Altera devices (now Intel), the atomic element is called LE (Logic Element) and it differs from the classical macrocella the GAL (product of terms such as AND-OR): The fundamental element of the CPLD is the macrocella, which constitutes the atomic logic element.

A further evolution of the CPLD is represented by FPGA (for more information see who) much more powerful and complex than CPLD, and they typically require an external memory for storing the configuration.

It is an evolution of prior programmable logic devices such as PAL and GAL (for more information see who). A CPLD (Complex Programmable Logic Device) It is a digital device that allows to program the logic functions to be implemented within the same device.
