Mini FPGA-based Signal Multiplexing in Minecraft (Vanilla)
6A Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) can seem complex to program, like other variants such as Complex Programmable Logic Device (CPLD).
Why so complex when all it consists of is literally an Array of Logic Gates that you can Program to do whichever data processing you want in the Field?
This video shows 2 machines, one which is a 2-peripheral semi-automated FPGA Switch and one which is a fully manually configured 3-device system.
The devices used are simple shift registers with nothing else attached,
but you can attach whichever peripherals you want (e.g. Arithmetic / IO).
The fully manual machine has its routing "hard-coded" in levers whereas the more flexible but larger scale semi-automatic machine can be programmed while switched on and running.
Each machine can be different and requires its own bitstream to configure it correctly for the intended usage. In the fixed machine, these switches are made inaccessible after it leaves the factory. In the more flexible machine, these switches can still be accessed with the right tools and software.
The design is meant to be scalable but there are size constraints when it comes to multiplexing larger numbers of channels. A limited number of peripherals have been connected to illustrate the machine's purpose.
In real CPU bus fabric there can be 100's of peripherals connected, but without any data or mechanism to use them there are 0 useful peripherals.