fpga-forum

When math meets hardware: Optimizing real-time 3D sonar on minimal FPGA resources

Water Linked develops compact, yet high-performance underwater navigation systems. At the core of our technology lies a strong synergy between advanced mathematical modeling, signal processing and deep FPGA expertise.

In this talk, we share insights from developing the Sonar 3D-15 — a real-time 3D imaging sonar built on a surprisingly small Altera FPGA. Achieving real-time 3D point clouds on limited hardware required extreme optimization, creative use of FPGA architecture, and smart algorithmic design.We will also show how modern verification tools like cocotb support efficient testing and optimization.

The result: a high-performance sonar that demonstrates how mathematical insight and hardware design can combine to achieve what many would consider impossible.

‘No CPU, No Compromise: Building Reliable FPGA Crypto for Space‘

EIDEL is a Norwegian leading designer and supplier of electronics for the defence and aerospace markets. The flexibility and versatility of FPGAs is a major advantage for demanding and low volume products that we deliver. While the current trend on FPGA development is to tightly integrate hardware and embedded software, we have decided for our Nanosatellite Crypto Unit not to use any CPU. This offers advantages when high reliability is required, and modern methodologies for design and especially testing makes the process easier than ever. By focusing on modularity and reuse of functional blocks, we have developed a highly capable and robust system, fully exploiting the parallelism and flexibility inherent to FPGAs.

We are proud to publish the Opening Keynote for FPGA-forum 2026:

‘Unlocking the Next Wave of FPGA Innovators with Generative and Agentic AI‘

Presented by: Eleena Ong, CVP Software Solutions and Applications Engineering at Lattice Semiconductor

FPGA development has long been the domain of specialized hardware engineers — but the landscape is changing rapidly. Generative AI can now translate high-level requirements into optimized HDL, assist with debug, and surface design insights instantly. Agentic AI takes this further, orchestrating tool flows, running verification loops, and integrating seamlessly with diverse ecosystems. This opens the door not only for hardware and embedded developers, but also for software engineers, AI/ML practitioners, algorithm designers, research scientists, and even domain-specific experts in fields like industrial automation, core and edge computing, automotive, aerospace, and more. In this keynote, we will explore how these rapidly maturing AI technologies can turn FPGA platforms into innovation canvases for a much broader range of developers — lowering adoption barriers, accelerating time-to-market, and sparking new application possibilities.

FPGA-forum 2026 will be Wednesday-Thursday 11-12 February.

Reserve the dates in your calendar now, and if you allready have some ideas for a presentation at this event, send us an email, We are ready to receive 🙂

We have again Workshops on Day 0 – Tuesday 4 February:

Note that FPGA-forum workshops are handled 100% by each workshop organiser.

Workshop 1: Security in FPGA based systems…

Time: 4 February: TBD

A deep dive in security concepts

By Tony Cartolano, Altera

Registration and more info:  https://forms.office.com/r/6qvw37F6BH

Workshop 2: Build your RISC-V system on a Low Power FPGA

Time: 4 February: 12:30-16:30

Learn how to build and program your RISC-V processor system with Lattice Radiant and Propel Tools on free Certux-NX Low Power CRUVI board. When all up and running you can take the board with you and continue you company design at work

By Matt Holdsworth and René Kappel Jensen

Registration and more info: https://forms.office.com/r/PNJmnGVLzw

Please make sure you book your hotel room before the reservation deadline 15 January, and note that there is a limited number of reserved rooms.

Registration – FPGA-forum

The program has just been updated (7 January) and now contains all presentations.
Please register as soon as possible

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Security is critical for any modern embedded system – and thus also for FPGAs, – but FPGAs could also be the key to better embedded systems security.
For FPGA-forum 2025 we wanted an opening keynote on FPGA and Security, and this is a very welcome result of that request.
(See also article in Elektronikknett – in Norwegian.)

FPGAAIPQCCRABBQ, or How to Decode (Survive?) The Cyber Storm

Presented by Anthony Cartolano, Altera FPGA Security Expert

Cybersecurity has captured headlines with an alarming increase in frequency. Between AI, quantum computers, software platforms, and government inquiries, it has been difficult to avoid daily disruptions, much less complete a reasonable product development cycle. In this talk, we’ll examine how recent trends, including artificial intelligence, post-quantum cryptography and more are placing incredible demands on product designers. We’ll show how and why FPGAs are uniquely suited to help designers both survive the current storm of rapidly changing requirements and prepare to respond to challenges throughout their lifecycle. Finally, we’ll discuss how FPGAs are already prepared to meet the requirements of the Cyber Resilience Act.

FPGA-forum 2025 will be Wednesday-Thursday 5-6 February.

Reserve the dates in your calendar allready now, and if you allready have some ideas for a presentation at this event, send us an email, We are ready to receive 🙂

The Opening Keynote will be on a subject that is important for almost everybody. This will be published very soon.