Re:AWS EC2 FPGA Hardware and Software Development Kit
by mikejmoffitt on Wednesday April 19, 2017 @06:39PM
(#14152433)
You could have a lot of combinational logic dependent on floating/high-Z inputs, which is not good for CMOS circuitry.
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Re:AWS EC2 FPGA Hardware and Software Development Kit
by dahtguy on Wednesday April 19, 2017 @06:48PM
(#14152484)
What's so bad about high-Z inputs? Designing around a floating input is the same as designing around an undefined variable. Bad design but you can't "hurt" the hardware.
Re:AWS EC2 FPGA Hardware and Software Development Kit
by femto on Wednesday April 19, 2017 @07:26PM
(#14152697)
An undefined variable is an abstract construct. You can model a floating input in as being analogous to an undefined variable and the model will fit reality most of the time, but the underlying reality is still governed by the complexities of physics, with potential for the model to break down.
Damage is probably more of a risk for an external I/O, but it's still a possibility for an internal I/O. Probably more of a certainty with a malicious programmer.
Who's going to be the first person to design an on-die switched capacitor voltage multiplier, using parasitic capacitance between gates as the energy storage, and use it drive an internal high impedance input to a damaging level?
Re:AWS EC2 FPGA Hardware and Software Development Kit
by duskwuff on Wednesday April 19, 2017 @07:20PM
(#14152656)
The only tristate buffers in modern FPGAs are on the pins. There's no way to leave inputs floating internally.
Re:AWS EC2 FPGA Hardware and Software Development Kit
by bedros on Friday April 21, 2017 @03:42AM
(#14163742)
Z logic or tri-state logic are not real in FPGAs, they are chains of AND OR logic
so basically you cannot burn FPGA by making a short-circuit
Re:AWS EC2 FPGA Hardware and Software Development Kit
by mikejmoffitt on Wednesday April 26, 2017 @04:48PM
(#14206851)
A floating pin on a CMOS device is absolutely real.