System integration reality check: Evaluate the statement — “Most complex digital designs combine multiple categories of hardware (e.g., CPUs, FPGAs/CPLDs, ASICs, analog front ends, memory, and interfaces).”

Introduction / Context:
Modern digital products—from smartphones to industrial controllers—rarely rely on a single hardware category. Designers integrate processing cores, programmable logic, memory hierarchies, power management, and analog subsystems to meet performance, cost, and regulatory goals.

Given Data / Assumptions:

• Target systems are nontrivial and involve multiple functions.
• Hardware categories include microprocessors, FPGAs/CPLDs, dedicated ASICs, memory, and mixed-signal I/O.
• Software coexists with hardware to implement features and updates.

Concept / Approach:
Partitioning assigns time-critical or parallel tasks to programmable logic or accelerators, while control, UI, and high-level algorithms run on CPUs. Memory and interfaces glue subsystems together. This typical heterogeneity underpins cost-effective and scalable designs.

Step-by-Step Solution:

Verification / Alternative check:
Teardowns of consumer devices show SoCs plus PMICs, RF, sensors, memory, and discrete logic. Industrial designs pair MCUs with FPGAs, ADCs/DACs, and isolation interfaces.

Why Other Options Are Wrong:

• Incorrect: Ignores common system partitioning.
• Only for aerospace / only when software is absent / depends on PCB layers: These constraints are irrelevant or false; heterogeneity is ubiquitous.

Common Pitfalls:
Overconsolidating into a single device and losing flexibility; underestimating integration complexity and signal integrity; neglecting firmware upgradability.

Final Answer:
Correct