Reconfigurable Computing — the Future of Computing?

Computer architectures have been mainly dominated by von Neumann architecture or Harvard architecture, where programmable software algorithms are running on a fixed hardware. With programmable logic like FPGA, data-intensive computing can be performed on the programmable logic instead of using software programs. Combination of the conventional computers and programmable hardware provides a paradigm shift in computing, known as reconfigurable computing, which would yield a significant performance gain in computing. The concept has existed for long, but it has yet been implemented in mainstream computers. With increasing demand in high computing power and low-power consumption requirements, especially in embedded systems, reconfigurable computing would be one of the promising solutions. An example is the recently unveiled Intel Atom E600C processor series – the marriage of an Atom processor with an Altera FPGA on the same package. There are still a lot of rooms for improvement in this area in many aspects, including reconfigurable fabric architecture, coupling between processor and reconfigurable fabric, and design flow methodology, to name a few.

Koay Kah Hoe

DreamCatcher Technical Training

February 2011