Steve Jobs, cattle prods, and FPGAs

I suppose we should be thankful to the San Francisco Chronicle/SFGate (leveraging from PC World) for making “FPGA” a household term, seeing as how the abbreviation shows up on an Apple support list in iPhone OS 3.0. But it also underscores how obsessive and cult-like fans of iPhone, iPod, and all things Apple can be regarding tweaks and updates to their latest toys.

First, Ian Paul follows the lead of Ars Technica in pondering what the USB-enabled “iProd” could be: an iPhone nano? An iTablet or similar netbook/smartbook derivative? An iPod with camera? Given its moniker, why not assume that this could be an iPhone with built-in Taser, turning every Apple handheld product into a cattle prod for the rest of us?

But the juice comes with another entry in the USB list called “iFPGA.” Paul’s column refers to programmable architectures, but doesn’t really speculate as to what this product could be. It might be a Shuffle-sized device capable of either reduced iPhone links, or data-only communications, all based on an integrated FPGA. Less romantically, it might be a reference to an FPGA itself and its ability to embed USB IP cores. That’s right, Apple watchers, iFPGA may not be a product at all!

Then again, it might be an acronym for “insipid Future-Product Geeks at Apple.” These idiotic speculations sure provide grist for the mill for the gadget-geek blogs. But ultimately, it has as much impact on the fate of the world as a DDOS on Twitter and Facebook. Shhhh! Don’t let an iPhone cultist hear us say that.