What are some practical applications of an FPGA?

Question

I\'m super excited about my program powering a little seven-segment display, but when I show it off to people not in the field, they always say \"well what can you do with it?\"

Answer 1

FPGA are also used to test/research circuit design before they start mass production. This is happening in several sectors: image processing, signal processing, etc.

Edit - after few years we can now see more practical applications including finance and machine earning:

• aerepospace
• emulation
• automotive
• broadcast
• high performance computers
• medical
• machine learning
• finance (including cryptocoins)