At a time when most boys are building things with blocks and Legos..Carson Page set his sights a little higher.

Since last year, Carson, who turned 8 on July 7 and will enter the third grade in September, has been programming circuits with FPGA software.

Carson, who has had a penchant for science since he learned to talk, developed an interest in FPGAs by watching his father, Ray, an electronic design consultant. Carson persuaded Ray to let him download Actel's Libero integrated development environment and begin tinkering with it.

In addition to FPGA programming, Carson takes part in activities more typical of kids his age, such as karate and soccer. "I'm a great goalie," he says. He also enjoys playing with his 6-six-year-old sister, Kelly.

Carson's interests are varied and change often. "At night he reads anything from an encyclopedia to the Hardy Boys." But, Ray adds, "From the time he began to talk, he has always been fascinated with the way things work--he's always been interested in electronics."

Carson was running applications on a PC when he was 18 months old and received his own PC for his second birthday, Ray said. By the time Carson was 4, he could install an operating system himself and correct driver problems if he had to.

Ray Page said he and Carson's mother, Lisa, do sometimes have to push Carson to get out and do more things, and they do put limits on his computer time.

In January, Ray Page, an Actel customer, mentioned his son's unusual hobby to an Actel field applications engineer.

Actel also put Carson to work. After catching wind of the 7-year-old whiz kid in Georgetown, Texas (about 20 miles north of Austin), "I decided that Carson would be a good guinea pig," said Jake Chuang, senior director of applications solutions marketing at Actel.

Carson at one time could explain the nuclear mechanics of the sun..

Noticeable boy, isn't he?

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