Correct terminology for 'putting instructions onto an FPGA'

Question

In an introduction to field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) Sparkfun describes that FPGAs aren't really 'programmed' (see below for excerpt) even though this is often used in every day language.

If this is 'not entirely correct', what would be the correct terminology for putting instructions onto an FPGA, used by the experts in the field? I would presume FPGA's are 'flashed', but I'm not sure if 'configured' would be the right word since putting instructions onto an FPGA is literally changing the hardware.

(sorry if this is not the right platform to ask this, it's more of a meta-question for engineering)

Citation from the Sparkfun introduction Jan 2021:

But you aren’t writing a program. You are creating a circuit. You don’t use programming languages to create circuits, you use hardware description languages (HDLs).

Answer 1

To configure FPGA a HDL language such as Verilog or VHDL is used. For example VHDL stands for very high-level design language. Designers use HDL to describe an electronic circuit.

Below is a schematic of a half adder:

Below is an implementation of a half adder in VHDL

Combinations of such digital logic circuits are used to design product such as a calculator. These designs are programmed into to the FPGA. In most cases the program is stored in ROM and at powerup the digital logic is loaded to the FPGA to create a calculator as in this example.

Generally most experts refer to this as loading logic into FPGA.

Flashing can be used, but this is mostly using in embedded systems, using a micro-controller.

Hope this helps

---

References:

• Half Adder Module in VHDL and Verilog