Designing Internet audio players using FPGAs

What is Internet?
The Internet, sometimes called the "Net", is a worldwide system of computer networks. It is a public, cooperative and self-sustaining facility accessible to hundreds of millions of people worldwide.

What is MP3?
MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3, more commonly referred to as MP3, is a patented digital audio encoding format using a form of lossy data compression. It is a common audio format for consumer audio storage. MP3 is often derided by audio purists for its lossy compression scheme, which discards audio data that's less noticable to the human ear in order to achieve small file sizes. A new format, dubbed MP3HD, is a lossless version that reverts to a generic MP3 file when there's no supporting codec for higher quality version.

What is FPGA?
Short for Field-Programmable Gate Array, a type of logic chip that can be programmed. An FPGA is similar to a PLD, but whereas PLDs are generally limited to hundreds of gates, FPGAs support thousands of gates. They are especially popular for prototyping integrated circuit designs. Once the design is set, hardwired chips are produced for faster performance.