How FPGAs Replaced My Arduino Boards - From Maker Faire Hannover 

Yes with a bigger microcontroller, this would be possible. I still like programming with FPGAs more because you always have enough performance no matter how many sensors and actors you add. And for me, FPGA programming became even simpler than microcontrollers. You don't have to think about which pin you use, if you have the right interfaces, and programming with an RTOS is more abstract

No, there are several examples where microcontrollers are not fast enough. So in many products are FPGAs or ASIC that were first designed with FPGAs

Did you see the MAX1000 video? There we show how to open the plotter

There are many applications where microcontrollers are a cheaper option, but the 30€ FPGA board has a way higher processing speed than 30€ arduino boards if you for example look at processing image data with neural networks in the last video on this channel. The robot example is maybe not the best one. With the additional power and flexibility, you can do more with the board and can use it for way more projects than what you can do with a microcontroller board. Often you also find a combination of an FPGA for high speed data processing and a microcontroller for the remaining tasks

More expensive too.

It's not always about the end product but the journey to it.

If those were beer bottles that would be totally worth it

For me it is more about the flexibility to always add more hardware without thinking about cycle times and multithreading. Also image processing is something that is more efficient of FPGAs

funny im working with a 2040 right now and just programming a BLDC controller (for a single motor) and i get to its limits because the cycle times are just too long for smooth operation at higher rpm's, even when splitting the work between both cores. i could use a bigger raspberry pi, but then there is no cost benefit compared to a cheap fpga, the software is awful and unreliable and it doesn't even have enough pwm outputs, so now i need to add another board which adds latency and complexity and.. man i think fpga's would've solved all my problems in the past and right now but i was just always too afraid of having to learn so much new stuff but not anymore IM GONNA BUY ONE NOW

well long answer short: i think you're extremely overestimating the capabilities of a 2040. its a good chip if you have one sensor or one output that operate at low frequencies, and not much more.

@@user-vn4yw8dt3m are you making use of the PIOs or just driving it from the main cores? because that looks like an application for the PIOs...