Dear friend,
A system gate is a standard for representing the number of two input NAND gates that can be emulated using this device. Remembering that the NAND gate is the "universal" gate and that any logic device can be built with enough of them. For example if you have cpld with 1,500 system gates, this is another way of saying that this device can make any project that can be made with 1,500 NAND gates.
For more information see :
**broken link removed**
which contains good lab lecture notes that can help you more!