FPGA (Field-Programmable Gate Array) design is the discipline of creating high-performance digital systems by describing logic in hardware description languages (Verilog, VHDL) and synthesizing into programmable hardware. FPGAs are reconfigurable chips: 50,000+ logic gates and memory blocks that can be reprogrammed for any application. Advanced FPGA design optimizes for timing (nanosecond-scale), power (watts per GFLOP), and area (utilization of limited FPGA resources). You're essentially designing a custom processor/accelerator in silicon.