FPGA

A reconfigurable hardware chip used in specialized and embedded systems.

An FPGA is an integrated circuit whose logic can be reconfigured after manufacturing, letting designers implement custom hardware functions in embedded and specialized systems. This flexibility supports rapid prototyping and hardware acceleration of tasks such as cryptographic operations or signal processing. The security tradeoff is that the reprogrammable bitstream can be a target for tampering or intellectual property theft if not protected. The exam contrast is with an ASIC, which is fixed at fabrication and offers higher performance and lower unit cost but cannot be altered later.