Using FPGAs for measurement, control

What is an FPGA?
A Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) is a type of gate array that is programmed in the field rather than in a semiconductor fab.

What does VHDL stand for?
VHDL or VHSIC Hardware Description Language is a hardware description language used to design electronic systems at the component, board and system level.

What is an algorithm?
An algorithm is a list of well-defined instructions for completing a task, such as computing an average value. Starting from an initial state, the instructions describe a computation that proceeds through a well-defined, though not necessarily deterministic, series of successive states, eventually terminating in a final ending state.