The roles of FPGAs in reprogrammable systems

TLDR

Reprogrammable systems based on FPGAs are transforming computation and digital logic by delivering orders‑of‑magnitude faster simulation, top‑performance implementations, significant hardware savings, and truly generic hardware. This paper examines the promise, problems, challenges, and opportunities of reprogrammable FPGA systems. The authors provide an overview of FPGA chip and system architectures and their applications.

Abstract

Reprogrammable systems based on field programmable gate arrays are revolutionizing some forms of computation and digital logic. As a logic emulation system, they provide orders of magnitude faster computation than software simulation. As a custom-computing machine, they achieve the highest performance implementation for many types of applications. As a multimode system, they yield significant hardware savings and provide truly generic hardware. In this paper, we discuss the promise and problems of reprogrammable systems. This includes an overview of the chip and system architectures of reprogrammable systems as well as the applications of these systems. We also discuss the challenges and opportunities of future reprogrammable systems.